Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1910. CAPITAL AND THRIFT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10155, 29 December 1910, Page 4

Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1910. CAPITAL AND THRIFT.

If there is one virtue which the prosperous conditions obtaining in New Zealand has destroyed, it is that of thrift. Money is no longer appreciated at its true valuo, and all classes of the community seem possessed of the lust for amusement, which results in the future being regarded as of little or no consequence. As a financial contemporary well says, the tendency to sacrifice the future, which seems to be so far away, but which after all is very near, in order to enjoy the present is rational, but if carried out according to the inclination of most people, must result in destitution when that period of life arrives when one is conscious of failing powers and that the journey is drawing to an end. In the present days, we are certain that there is less consideration given to the storing up of some sort of provision for old ago than at any previous time in the. history of our country The ordinary worker, whether clerical, skilled or unskilled, generally by the end of one week has spent the whole of the wages he received upon the previous pay day. There are of course exceptions, men and women who take a proper view of then' responsibilities and insist upon making some little increase to their, savings

each week by the exercise of perhaps rigid self-denial,- and it is a pity that we must consider these cases as the exception only. If we could iiiduce the great army of workers, and we use the term in its most comprehensive sense, to put by each week or each month even one-twentieth of their earnings, we should have a country rich and prosperous in the truest sense of the word. But there are many temptations, sport, theatres, and many other lorms of pleasure, levying heavy tolls upon the wages of our people. l\ T o one grudges a reasonable ~amount of expenditure upon-amusement, and if after making a fair provision weekly for the future the worker has sufficient left to spend money at the races, upon his motor-cycle, photographic paraphernalia, and tours into the country, by all means let him do so provided always he is not using up his last sous in so doling. The worst part of the business is that the money spent is not disbursed in a manner that assists to any extent the industrial development of the country. Money saved becomes capital, and the more of that in a country the better for everyone, notwithstanding things which have been said to the contrary. The more available liquid capital a country possesses the greater must be the demand for labour and' higher the wages in relation to commodities which will be paid. Two things are required m order that a country may. absorb all its .labour—the money to pay the wages, and the inclination to spend. The more capital which can be accumulated in the Dominion, the greater will be the fund available from which our workers .can draw. The second factor in any country has to be encouraged. Capital is at all times timid, and easily slips away if it fears an attack, or that its fair share of Mfhat it makes is not given, and a working man who has £IOO in the Post Office Savings Bank is just as apprehensive upon these points as is the millionaire. No country can ever become great or powerful, or its people prosperous unless it is supplied with the life blood which capital fairly protected brings to it.