THE AUSTRALIAN CRISIS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 9185, 27 April 1893, Page 6

THE AUSTRALIAN CRISIS.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—ln the Herald this morning Mr. Abbott gives us another of those striking "word-pictures" which are his peculiar forte. His command of language is wonderful, and we cannot but admire the wealth of imagery with which he has depicted the rise, the culmination, and the collapse of the modern South Sea Bubble. It is only when he undertakes to " photograph the cause " of the catastrophe that his diagnosis is seen to be inadequate. Ho tells us it was caused by the depositors becoming panic-stricken ; but the vital question is, What caused the panic? Was it not a general doubt as to the value of the assets held by the banks? Strange that so astute a financier should overlook the fact that the world is beginning to recognise the essential difference between " property " and " privilege." Assets which can only be represented by the capitalised value of privilege are held only on the " tenure of a closed eye." Capital is realised wealth, but land is neither capital nor realised wealth, and it is only because the State unjustly allows it to be used as a private taxing engine that it has any value in exchange between man and man. Here we have the true and sufficient "cause" of the panic, and we shall be liable to such panics so long as wo confound "property" with "privilege" and mistake "effect" for "cause."—l am, etc., 25th April, 1593. Civis.