THE Marlborough Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. FRIDAY, JANUARY 26, 1888.

Marlborough Daily Times, Volume X, Issue 169, 20 January 1888, Page 2

THE Marlborough Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. FRIDAY, JANUARY 26, 1888.

Tije reported extensive discoveries of silver ore in New South Wales and other parts'of the world is not an ijnmi?e,d gqod to such countries as England and her colonies, which maintain a gold standard of currency, unless the new discoveries of gold prove of equal vulne to. the new discoveries of silver, which is somewhat doubtful. The enormous quantity of silver that is now being unearthed the world over, will depreciate tho value of that metal as compared with gold, and the

purchasing power of silver will be considerably decreased. There is so much silver now that it is at a discount of twenty per pent fr°Rr its nominal value of one-fifteenth ice' weight in gold. The Hawke's Bay Herald in an able article on the subject says:— “ The Chambers of Commerce and of Manufactures in Great Britain are beginning to see the disastrous effects to them of the maintenance of a monometallic currency. It may pay the holders of foreign hopds, who receive their dividends in gold, afld fifld that that gold is now of considerably more yah?c t'tyan when they contracted to lend the money. " But ft does not pay the IE: 'si: farmer and the British manufacturer, who are the mainstay of the country. Quite recently delegates from the Chambers of Manufactures in the North of England met and considered the question, and the outcome was a declaration in favor of bi-m.tullism to be forwarded fo Mr Goschen, Chancellor of the Exchequer. }[? fjowhen was at one time a shining light among thpufoppr metallists, but his reply seems jto indicate that he is not now f.;o firm in that faith as he once was. Ho does not yield all at once to that which he not very long ago regarded as financial heresy, hut he lias to admit that there is 5 great de.ai of force in the arguments and r.eprageutu I tio j ns‘ put kefopp jfim- He even goes so far as 'to indicate tfisp fie might <?4mit much mor.e, were in not for f the fact that Grm£ fifitpu is'.the world’s money-lender, and in iipipnQfipg jpy',tbe ■ payment of interest in gold receives sQ i much more goods to produce that gold , than if she were content to receive pay-

ment in silver. But, reducing that argument to a nutshell, the obvious report is —is it wiser to let agriculture and commerce go to the wall to make things merry for the lenders of gold, or to adopt such measures as will relieve trade from the incubus now crushing out its life, while leaving to the lenders of gold till that they expected to receive when they lent the money, though less than they do now actually receive ? This problem will force itself more and more to the front, by its own weight. It will have to be solved, and every new discovery of silver, without a proportionate increase in the production of gold, brings near the time when English statesmen and financiers must join with the statesmen and financiers of other countries, and search for that solution.”

The N.Z. Times, speaking on the subject of the reported retirement of Sir Dillon Bell from the Agent-Generalship and the appointment of Sir Robert Stout in his place, says : —“There is no foundation whatever for this report. There is not the faintest probability that the present Government will offer the AgencyGeneral to Sir Robert, and it is considered unlikely that he would accept it even if offered, involving as it would the virtual sacrifice of his profitable legal business.” Assuming that the position were offered him, Sir Robert is not the man to decline the office on tho grounds that it would be a “ yirtual sacrifice of his profitable legal business,” but rather on the more exalted and patriotic principle that he can be of greater service to the Colony by watching the current of political events, and, by voice and pen, guiding the drift of public opinion.