The Temuka Leader TUESDAY, JUNE 9, 1891. PAPER MONEY.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2212, 9 June 1891, Page 2

The Temuka Leader TUESDAY, JUNE 9, 1891. PAPER MONEY.

When, years ago, we used to oast doubts on the financial stability of a certain monetary institution people laughed at us, The world would tarn upside down, but that institution could not be shaken. This, however, did not save it from receiving a severe shock, When we also stated that the commerce of the world was carried on with paper money, people laughed again, but their laughter has not diminished the quantity of paper money nor increased the number of gold sovereigns. No amount of laughter, sneer- | mg, or ridicule can alter facts. The 'laughter has subsided, the ridicule and sneers are no longer indulged in, but the simple fact we have so frequently put before our readers still remains unaltered, A little gold was taken away from New York at the time of the Baring failure, and the whole city was plunged into a state of panic, out of which men who were supposed to be wealthy emerged penniless beggars, while heartless speculators reaped an immense harvests. There is London at the present time, and because Russia took away £3,000,000 in gold it is shaking, financially-speak-ing, to its very foundation. London is the storehouse of the world’s gold supply, the metropolis of money, and yet the withdrawal of £3,000,000 has struck terror into the hearts of financiers, and they have rushed to the Government and the Bank of England for assistance. And what rssiatance do they demand? More paper money. The business of the world is being transacted in paper money, there is not one per cent, df it metallic, and yet if anyone were to suggest in this colony that the Government should issue paper money, he would be characterised as a faddist, who wanted to make the country rich with “ a printing press and a bale of paper.” And then argument ceases to be effective ; the oracle has spoken and no dog must bark. All the wisdom of the seers is summed up in this “printing-press-and-bale-of-paper” argument; it is a clincher which settles the question. Now the honest truth is that the commerce of the world is carried out by “ a printing press and a bale of paper,” and the result is the capitalists are fleecing the people by its means. This cannot always go on ; a day of reckoning will come, and that before very long. Let the Bank of England issue £l-notes, it will only aggravate the position in the end, and enable capitalists to extend their fleecing operations over a wider range. All this could be avoided, and finance could be placed on a sound footing, if the State took the note issue under its own control. But this will not be done until the terrible crash comes, and then very possibly men may open their eyes to the fact that it would be safer to place the printing press and bale of paper under Government control than allow speculators to use them indiscriminately.