RESTITUTION.

Auckland Star, Volume XIX, Issue 149, 25 June 1888, Page 4

RESTITUTION.

Readers of tlie London "Times" must often have been struck at reading the advertisements showing the sums, occasionally very large sums of money, expended for conscience' sake. Eestitution of this order is not unknown in Auckland, as witness the case of the draper who the other day received an anonymous letter enclosing a small amount of which a customer had defrauded, him many years previously. It may, indeed, be fairly inferred that an ordinary man's conscience is never entirely at ease when he has once defrauded, his neighbour j tho fact of hie having done so is ever present with him, and even the actual amount involved remains indelibly impressed upon his memory, Such a man may endeavour to salve his conscience over by epeoious reasoning, but in his heart of hearts he would gladly recall the fatal step, and occasionally does anonymously restore that which, he has unjustly acquired,

Is it Utopian to imagine that a time may yet arrive when this anxiety to act fairly and honestly will become the rule, and not the exception—when the robbers of the widows and the fatherless, when the usurers and extortioners, and those who grind down the faces of the poor, shall suddenly wake up to the fact that their ways are not good, and shall all with one consent rush to make restitution 1 We are told on good authority that "that which has been is that which shall be," and there are not wanting historical evidences of wholesale restitution being voluntarily undertaken by those very sections of the community whom we have enumerated. Just about 2,333 years ago an energetic and a free people had undertaken a work of great national importance. This work, although vital to their national existence, was not of a pecuniarily reproductive character; the consequence was that the poorer classes and those of moderate means found themselves compelled to seek assistance from the pawnbroker, the money-lender, and the usurer and extortioner in order to find food for themselves and their families whilst the great national work was being undertaken. Bills of sale and mortgages were executed, and though the work upon whioh the people were engaged was a national one, the moneyed classes had no mercy. The times were depressed, and that was their opportunity. The landowners had a " high old time," they added field to field, house to house, vineyard to vineyard, and household furniture was sold under bills of sale and distraint for rent at the same figure as the same articles are sold under like circumstances in Auckland.

The depression was indeed great, and the people's need very sore, and although it happened more than two thousand years ago it is fairly paralleled by the position of New Zealand at the present time. New Zealanders are now engaged on a great national work —nothing less than endeavouring by all means, at all hazards and no matter by what straits, to meet its millstone liabilities, satisfy the public creditor, and place itself financially straight in the eyes of the world. It is a great undertaking, and very nobly have the people set themselves to the task, but as in the illustration above given there is no pay attached to this work, and it is out of their very poverty and necessities that many New Zealanders furnish their daily quota to satisfy the Treasury cormorant. And what is the consequence ?• Precisely what occurred 2,300 years ago. History is again repeating itself, and the people seek assistance from the pawnbroker, the money - lender, the usurer aud the extortioner, and house is still added to house, and field to field, and furniture is distrained for rent and sold for a song, because the moneyed men are not alive to the fact that the great work being performed is a national work, and that by thencourse of action they are hindering the work and positively promoting national bankruptcy. But the parallel is not complete. It is historically recorded that the people above referred to " raised a great cry," and they went to their Governor and said, " We.have mortgaged our lands, vineyards and houses that we might buy "food. We have had to borrow money even to pay the taxes, and that upon our lands and vineyards. Our sons and our daughters are practically enslaved, and we have no money to redeem them, as other men have taken our lands and vineyards." When the Governor heard it he was "very angry," and after taking time to consider the position, he called the leaders and moneyed men, and syndicates and rings to him, and expostulated with them and pointed out the enormity of their conduct, and it is said "they held their peace, for they had no answer," and the Governor said to them—"lt is not good that ye do. Let us, I pray you, leave off this usury, and restore to the people at once, this very day, the lauds, the vineyards, the houses, the oliveyards, and the hundredth part of the money and corn and wine and oil that ye have taken from them;" and they said, "We will restore them and take nothing more from them, and we will follow your advice." The promise was fulfilled, the depression vanished, and the national work was completed.

In New Zealand, when the bulk of the national revenue is raised from Customs duties, the poor must suffer. There are always some members of a community so poor that they ought to escape taxation, but if a man is only in receipt of a few shillings a, week, not enough to keep him and his family in necessary food, a certain percentage off those few shillings is taken by the State in taxation. This is not right or fair, and yet now in our country's great need, when all good citizens should vie with each other in endeavouring to extricate the country from its difficulties, the Treasurer, by way _ of making the country meet its liabilities, puts an extra crushing weight through the Customs, on tea and other articles which are necessities of life to the poor, and which there is no prospect of producing within the country. It is impossible for the people to bear up against these burdens, and so their lauds go, and their houses and furniture go to pay their way and meet their taxes, and at last they go themselves. It is time for the people of New Zealand also to " raise a great cry," as the citizens of Auckland have done and propose further to do at the public meeting to-night. Unfortunately, Christian ethics do not specifically condemn tho practice of usury, so there.is little hope of our depression disappearing through the self-sacrificing action ofmoney-lenders, mortgagees, and the foreign creditor, Repudiation is equally out of the question, so the only course loft open is rigid and unsparing retrenchment,