OUR SAVINGS.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2325, 4 June 1887, Page 1 (Supplement)

OUR SAVINGS.

Fifteen million in ten years! This amount (eays the Taranaki Herald) we showed the other day had been accumulated by the the people of New Zealand during the decade. That is to say, they were better off in 1885 by £15,000,000 than they were in 1575. Half of that amount was in capital or its equivalent, the residue being the additional land brought under cultivation. We may talk about the depression and badness of the times, but a country, consisting'of little over half n million of people who can manage to save a million and a half yearly, besides meeting all engagements, cannot be so bad after all. Iα England the increase of wealth is very great. The London Economist of Saturday, November 6th, made' a statement which, to most people who are dwelling on what is called the " depression, " must have seemed simply amazing. That country, which is supposed to be so nnprosperous, or even to be losing money, r has saved and invested within the last ten years at least a thousand million sterling, a third more than the National Debt, and probably a much larger sum. A thousand millions saved in ten years i* to men who are not astronomers, a rather bewildering figure—one which the imagination refuses completely to take in ; but the amount when carefully considered is ho* so very great. It is only a hundred millions a year, a fifth more than is paid in national taxation—probably not 2a in the pound of national income, and certainly not a fourth of the income of those who paj' inco.ne tax. We are not going back as those with long faces would wish to make out, but many who in the past have marie money " hand.over fist," as it is somewhat griphically described, are now compelled to be content with a legitimate business, and cannot reconcile themselves , to the change ; hence the

grumbling.