THE Temuka Leader. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1891. FRIGHTENED CAPITAL.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2274, 31 October 1891, Page 2

THE Temuka Leader. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1891. FRIGHTENED CAPITAL.

We have had it cabled to i|3 all the way from London that a certain investment Company intended to withdraw a quarter of a million from the colony because of the change in the incidence 'of taxation. Our readers may rely on it that this is all bluster and blow, got up purposely to try to frighten the people of New Zealand. In the name of common sense, where caii this company invest this money anywhere which will give better results than in New Zealand. Let it take it to England to invest in consols at 2 per Cent, per annum, and find it difficult to get the consols to purchase. There is far more money in England than can be profitably employed, and the reason these investment companies come to us with their capital is not because they love us, but because they cannot do better elsewhere. Then, are they to go to South America, where there is a revolution two or three times a year, and where no one is certain of his property from year’s end to year’s end. There is an immense amount of British capital there already, but the investors have not found the security very good. Let them take it to Australia, to Canada, or anywhere else, and ten chances to one they will come back again, after having travelled the world without finding a better field than New Zealand. This cry, therefore, does not frighten us. It is only a part of the plan ; it is only the foul birds fouling their own nests, in the vain hope that they will frighten people, but they will not. Even supposing such were the case, and that the money-rings combined together to crush the Government with the power of the purse, they will find that our political resources are not

yet exhausted. It is possible they may try it. “ Whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad.” There cannot be the slightest doubt but that the capitalists arc pursuing a mad course at present. They cannot move, or speak, or do anytiling which does not savor of hostility to popular ideas ; conciliatory methods they seem to contemn, and they show a determination to secure their own ends without any regard as to the effect their action may have on the minds of their opponents. This we believe to be madness, and it is not impossible that in their folly they may try to put on the screw in order to coerce the Government into submission, to their will. Let them attempt this and they will find that the Government will crush them. “ A nation’s voice is a sacred thing, ’tis stronger than a king,” and stronger than mortgagees or money-rings. We have reason to believe that most, if not all, of the members of the present Government believe in a State Bank, but will not take steps to- | wards establishing one because they do not think the time ripe for it. Let the money-rings attempt to crush the people, so as to coerce them into compliance with their mandates, and the time will ripen very quickly:—much quicker than the money-rings would find advantageous to them. We have the right men in power, with the right people at their back, and the money rings would do well to be very careful lest they provoke a crusade against thfem. There is no class in the community so powerful as the moneyrings, but there is no class who could be more easily crushed. Their transactions are almost entirely conducted in paper money, and all that is necessa y is to insist on gold payments. Let the Government establish a State Bank, and reserve to it the right to issue paper money; let the people remove their deposits to the State Bank, and where would the other banks be then '! They would curse the day they meddled with the Government. But the money rings know too much to drive the people to take steps of this nature ; they know their strength and they know their weakness too well to do such a thing, and, mad as they are, they may safely be trusted to avoid cutttiug their own throats. There is nothing but bluster, sound, and fury in the cablegram from England we may be sure, and no one need be at all concerned about it. Since writing the above, the following telegram from Wellington has reached us: — “The threatenei withdrawal of English investments from New Zealand, mentioned in a London cablegram this morning, does not refer in any way to withdrawals from the National Bank of New Zealand, but is the withdrawal of capital generally by investment companies, owing to the continued attacks made on capital in the colony No investment company is withdrawing from the National Bank.”

Now does not this prove what we have stated above to be correct ? The statement was made at the meeting of the shareholders of the National Bank in London, but the New Zealand manage ment, seeing that it would damage the bank here, has taken steps to coutradic it. They say that “no investment company is withdrawing from the bank.” Of course there is not; we never believed there was. The whole thing is a lie. Let it be known, however, that no investment company eould withdraw from the colony without withdrawing from some bank; that is a certainty, for all monetary institutions operate through the medium of the banks. Is there a bank in New Zealand which will say that any investment company has withdrawn from it ? We defy them to prove it. The Lord has thus delivered them into our hands. To save the bank from injury the New Zealand managers have had to give the lie direct to the London shareholders, thus showing that the murder is out-. Unless the money-rings take care they will ruin themselves. The democracy of New Zealand is not going to submit to the dictation of British Shylocks any longer.

GENERAL BOOTH. General Booth is amongst us. He arrived in Christchurch last Thursday, and will, we believe, pass through here by train on Monday next cn route for Oamaru, where he will break the journey. Efforts will be made to delay the train for a few minutes in Timaru, but as yet we are not in a pqsition to say whethpr this will be dque or not, Pepple may differ from the methods employed by the Salvation Army with regard to their religious ceremonies, but we believe that few will doubt General Booth’s sincerity. He is undoubtedly sincere and genuine in the work he has in hand. It has been said that he is doing everything for the glorifiqatiqxi of himself and his family, but that is a mean and narrow view to take of his action. It is impossible for the General to carry on the work without showing up as a conspicuous figure in it. If he had been of a shy retiring disposition he could not carry on the work. The fairest view to take of his work is to look at its results, and let the motives be what, they may. When the results are good the motives which produce them cannot be very bad. There cannot be a doubt as to General Booth’s good work. He has done more good for the most helpless of his feUqwbeings than any living man, and if his life is spared he will do a great deal more. With his religious methods we have nothing to do. We only look at the temporal results produced "by his works. Through his instrumentality thousands are being picked out of the depths of degradation, vice, and crime, and made comfortable and self-reliant. We have neither time nor space to go more fully into the matter at present, and shall content ourselves with wishing him and his work God’s speed.