HISTORY REPEATING ITSELF.

Hokitika Guardian, 6 January 1921, Page 1

HISTORY REPEATING ITSELF.

BY TKLEGRAPIf —PER PRESS ASSO(TAT|Oy |

WELLINGTON, Jan, 4

History appears to be repeating itself, for the conditions prevailing now are analogous to those experienced after the Napoleonic war, Those why pan find time to rend Alison’s ‘’History of Europe” will be a maxed nt the striking similarity of the t>yo periods. Ho great had been tire success, so glorious the triumphs of England in the latter years of the Napoleonic war that the least sanguine were led to entertain the most unbounded hopes of the future prosperity of the Empire, and there were many facts to sustain this belief. The revenue raised by taxation had risen Bom £19,000,000 in 1792 to £72,000,009 in ISIS. The total expenditure from taxes and Loans had rpaclipd in 1814 and 181.3 the enormous amount of £117,000,000 cych year, Britain had a million man under arms and « loan of £35,000,000 floated in 18J4 was raised at £4 Jls Id per cent, The exports rose from £27,000,000 ill 1792 to £58,000,000 in 1815, and the imports from £19,000,000 to £32,000,000, The population had increased from 14,000, 000 to 18,000,000. The hopes of the people were cruelly disappointed, for no sooner was peace concluded than distress, wide-spread and universal, was experienced throughout the Kingdom. The working people in the village of Bilston were reduced to such straits that they all fell on the parish, the funds of which were inadequate to pieserve them from starvation. Wheat declined from 108 h«d per quarter to b3s Bd, although it rose to a guinea a bushel in 1810, owing to the very bad harvest of that year. Copper declined from £IBO a ton to £BO, and iron from £2O to £8 a ton. English goods were selling cheaper at Buenos Aires and m the north of Europe than either in London or Manchester. The war had exhausted Europe and the people were too poor to make extensive purchases. Those conditions a hundred years ago are being repeated in the main now There is widespread unemployment throughout Europe and it is spreading to North America and other countries. Commodity prices are falling and trade is slackening. Europe is impoverished taxation .everywhere is very Targe, national debts are stupendous, money is dearer,’ and the outlook is doubtful.