AUCKLAND LIBERAL ASSOCIATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7664, 15 June 1886, Page 4

AUCKLAND LIBERAL ASSOCIATION.

At a meeting of the Auckland Liberal Association held yesterday evening, under the presidency of Mr. W. H. Farnall, the following resolutions were unanimously carried :—

1. That the steady and progressive fall In general prices now causing such a deplorable stagnation of industry, is simply the result of a change in the standard of value arising from a growing scarcity of gold. 2. That, as a natural consequence, things must inevitably continue to drift from bad to worse indefinitely until labour is supplied with a medium of exchange which can expand in the same ratio as the wealth which it represents. 3. That the only practicable and radical remedy for a financial depression, arising from an inadequate supply oi the precious metals, is that pointed out by Adam Smith in *' Wealth of Nations," namely, " A well-regulated paper meney," which, as he says, would supply the place of a metallic currency, " not only without any inconveniency, but, in some eases, with some advantages." 4. That to prevent the possibility of their depreciation, the number of Stat* banknotes in circulation should be strictly kept well within the bounds of the amount of taxation annually voted by Parliament, that they might be honestly redeemed at par, periodically, by that means. Such legal tender notes, though not convertible into gold, to be exchangeable for Government bonds beari interest, to inture their full value in the event of an excessive issue, as in time of war or other great emergency. 6. That justice to the taxpayer Imperatively demands that all official salaries exceeding £200 per annum should be forthwith reduced in the same proportion as the purchasing power of money has risen during the last seven years. 6. That since the burden of all debts is now beta; rapidly augmented by the steady appreciation of gold, a borrowing policy is perilous in the extreme, and must, if persisted in, toon load to either bankruptcy or repudiation. 7. That an issue of State bank notes, bearing interest and payable on demand, in gold, would increase taxation and afford Industry no rellsf whatsoever.