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New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 9404, 10 January 1894, Page 4

We are all inclined to listen attentively and with respect to what the Times says, even when it insists on a truism, and when its advice is destitute of all ; novelty whatever. Other newspapers i may err, from a foolish hankering after novelty and smartness, bat the Times must always be taken seriously. Its. latest utterance is: " The recent troubles of the colonies have proved that the soil is the true source of wealth." It is indeed necessary that truths should be spoken in season and out of season, ana should be repeated generation after generation. We require to be frequently reminded even of the Ten Commandments. And as to the few fundamental principles of political economy, most people are yet ignorant of them, or * at all events are not united in putting them in practice. We hope, therefore, that nobody will sneer, and say that the Times should tell us something new, and that we were all aware that " the soil is the true source of wealth." Wo might indeed have learned it from a source as early and as authoritative as the first chapter of Genesis, and from the repetition of it ever since by every thinker who has written on the constitution of society. Men must earn their living by work. But mere labour can create nothing ; it operates by utilising natural objects, that is, the land. We have not the least doubt that the Times preceded : the enunciation of this truism by showing that we in the colonies had been endeavouring to live as if this precept were false,' We have been trying to make a pyramid stand on its apex instead* of its base. We have been endeavouring to become rich by neglecting the land, by some idea that we could borrow without repaying. We have thought that we could erect a gigantic commerce without troubling ourselves to produce anything. We have failed disastrously, and must go back to first principles. There are still amongst us individuals who call themselves statesmen, and who are struggling to avoid the recognition of this as a practical fact to be dealt with. But we will all have to come to the conclusion at the last. No system of tariff laws can make us wealthy. Our position is simplicity itself. We live by what we produce by labour from the soil. We offer in the markets of the world necessaries for the life of men, in the shape of food and the materials for clothing. We must take what these are worth in the markets of the world. We ourselves cannot fix the price at which they shall be sold, because we have many and keen competitors. It follows therefore that every law, every tariff imposition, which hinders our production of these articles which we offer for sale must be injurious and the cause of waste. The dictum of the Times is not lost upon us. New Zealand would be a happy place if we all fully recognised that "the soil is the true source of wealth,* and followed that truth out to J all its rational conclusions. .