Some New Zealand Wit

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIII, Issue 38, 21 September 1905, Page 2

Some New Zealand Wit

In former days Kings made war and pea.cc. The kings— of finance— do it still. Sidoma, in Disraeli's ' Conmgsby,' never troubled about international crises and rumors of Avar in newspapers til] Governments began tx) negotiate for heavy loans. Then he knew they meant blood-letting. But the iwonarchs of the Stock Exchange are those who, by the opening and the closing of their purse-string's, practically determine the opening and the closing of a war. And they kmow abundantly how to guard as well as how to place their treasured millions. Quaint and humorous expression was ghen to this idea by Mr. John Barrett, of Chnstchurch, in the course of a recent interview with our San Francisco contemporary, the ' Monitor ' ' How is your country defended against foreign aggression *>' the ' Monitor ' queried. Mr. Barrett's reply wap both witty and wise ' England,' said he, ' has a South Pacific squadron which calls once every six months, but our maim defence is tho fact that we owe (he Jews of the world forty million pounds sterling, and intwnd to borrow more money from them. In thtir hands we consider ourselves pretty safe against aggre«sion.'