"MERCATOR" AND BIMETALLISM.

Evening Star, Issue 9472, 17 August 1894, Page 4

"MERCATOR" AND BIMETALLISM.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, — Again I thank your correspondent for courteously (more so, perhaps, that in his first) replying to my last, How many advocates of political and social reform, in inventing expedients for the regeneration of our vile human nature, miss out knowing what that nature is in their calculations, or, in other words, how many of us are capable of laying hold of a system of abstract thought and translating it into action ? All reforms must start from within, not from without.

Gold is to “ Lumper ” simply a medium of exchange. You have allowed me to instance the case of the whaler and his copper nails. The one had plenty of sovereigns but no nails; the nails to the former were indispensable, hence they were sold weight for weight. We have seen the same in the early “ fifties ” regarding flour sales, etc., sold on the diggings. With every respect, bimetallists seem too dogmatic—“it is, because it is.” Let us again, on the axiomatic formula of selfishness —in which all must agree—assume A holds wheat and B wool. Now, food we must have, but we can substitute cotton clothing for woollen. In the event of dearth in wheat must A (gold) be compelled to sell at the same prices a B (silver) where there is no dearth ?—of course, • assuming that the market for cotton (silver) is the cheaper. The nations of the world at present undoubtedly have “faith” in England’s sovereign or gold, and so changed their currency, as the coomtnercial unit of exchange coveted by all. Why should metals have a fixed value any more than other commodities ? True gold has at a mint, and in order to protect the digger in Australia mints were established (by the way, Protectionists should insist upon having one in New Zealand); hut this fixed value is a “yard stick’’.only for ( the “faith” of British commercial supremacy. Now the

bimetallists say we -want another fixed valu for silver.-: Once get thiaahd everyone win sail, bonanza-like, to prosperity thll expansion of currency being all that is necessary. But “Lumper” only asks for facts to prove this. He has proved (in - New Zealand, at any. rate) that a shilling and a sovereign, a fortiori , to-day has a greater purchasing power—nearly double—than it had thirty years ago. No one regrets more .than “Lumper” that the unemployed both in the colonies and London are so numerous, but that the substitution of two “ yard sticks,” gold and silver, for one “gold” will be the panacea, requires proof, not abstract assertions. I think it was Carlyle who siid “A fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work is as just a demand as governed men ever made of governing; it is the everlasting right of man.” In order to secure this the property-holder must have some finality as to how far confiscation is to extend, and if the bimetallists will prove their scheme will secure this they should be deified.—l am, etc., LtJMCuit. Dunedin, August 10.