Wairarapa Daily Times. [ESTABLISHED 1878.] TURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1894. INTEREST AND WAGES.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XV, Issue 4653, 20 February 1894, Page 2

Wairarapa Daily Times. [ESTABLISHED 1878.] TURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1894. INTEREST AND WAGES.

'second edition

The New Zealand Timet has interj prated Mr Seddon's Foxton speech to mean something more than ordinary people can make of it, but even with tjje friendly light of this Ministerial bnllspy/3 ilifi proposal seems dark and hazardous. If the present rgte of interest be kept up, our ooptemporftry [{ prophecies ruin to the producer. He also intimates to any rplief whioli mar be experienced from Mr Seddon's proposals will come slowly and gi'adnu ally. New Zealand producers, from - the Times' point of view, arc on the threshold of rain, and this being the case is it a prudent thing for the State to guarantee their debts ? Accepting the statement as laid down by our Wellington contemporary the State wjjl incur a very grave risk. We bejieve, however, that the statement is incorrect apd tjijt even at the present low proposers tjfg not on tlifi verge of fuin or Rear if. When good sheep wepe five shillings a head in New Zealand pradqgpfs managed to live, and it is all nonsense fco suppose that they cannot exist when the price of them stands at ten and twelve shillings. The men who are in.difli '.cuities are the men, who have gone ] od with inadequate meanß, men i who perhaps fsß up bush country from the,Government'at twenty-five | sliiij'ngs ap acre,' which is only tea billing?. fjowever, we are glaij to learn ftp 9tfF oonj%tpry tJi^t the Government ftrg not going to borrow the? are only going to pejt pent-up millions from London to Now Zealand and become surety for them. It perbft-ps does not much matter • whether a ragt) e.r a State borrows money straight out or Ims gopieone else to borrow it and merely bfijoqjea security for the advance. T|ie main question is that the pent-up millions in the London money market are to ijnd their way to New Zealand and no they aro badly wanted here. Qur r,ontem|'orEry makes another statement which is hardly oorrpct, He sfljs th?t the ratea of interest here are comparatively higher tbap the price paid for labou?. An ordinjry'wte'of interest in this Colony is 7 per cenj and an ordinary rate of waged is 7s per day. In England an ordinary rate of wages is 4s per day and an ordinary rate of interest 5 per cent. There usually exists a certain relation between the rates oftnteMt and the ' rates paid for labour. Our local confmnpoiary wishes to bring down the ra(d of iptprest in New Zealand to five per cent, but according to the usual law ot proportion ■ wjjen this desideratum is pbtain.ed the rate of wages would fujl to four shillings per day, Cheap labour usually follows cheap money and Mr Seddon in bringing about one change may, very muoh against his own wishes, cause another by reducing the #j of wages throughout the Colony. At thfl ppesenli time, the Government by artificial are bolstering up the rate of wages, tut. a time will come when they can no longer 1 control the labour market, and wages may come down with a run as the of the mistaken policy of the Government, In England, on the Continent and in America, there exists a certain correspondence be- ' {jyeen the rates charged for money and jlherajtes paid for wages, Cheap mouey ana cheap ijbfljr generally go together, and where mow •*? s e . at i wages run high. It will be quite a , p§\y experience to find in an English i icoJonyj&lojy rate for interest'and a i higb rate for fatylfr, Jf Mr Seddon oan bjring such an W,usua| atjte of things about he will be a henefaotojc I to tl)(3 coJpnYj but it is unreasonable '] to expect tiW the experiences of a ! 1 century of colonisation will hg reyerspd i for the benefit of this colony at his ( bidding. Mr Beddon is playing with ' edged tools, and in spite of his great <

natural ability he is taking grave risks. So far his governrwufhave injured the New Zealand labour marker by an injudicious attempt to improve it by artificial meatis, He has taken a wrong path, and will follow it up till be gets bogged in slime finauoial swamp. His motto is Excelsior, aud he will come to grief, and bring the colony to grief before he stops.

We have received a copy of the balance sheet of the Masterton Agricultural and Pastoral Association for the past year, Csroful management has produced the customary, result, viz., a substantial credit balance, and this atter spending about fifty pounds on the new show ground, Of courfee, an effort is needed, and a big one too, to make the annual show more worthy I of the district which it represents, and j it may perhaps be some incentive to settlers to give this assistance when " they know thit the affairs of" the AsßOciaiion are being prudently managed, and that it is paying its way, although its transactions are on a smaller scale than they ought to be,