THE New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) SATURDAY, MAY 19, 1894. APPRECIATION OF GOLD.

New Zealand Times, Volume LVI, Issue 2210, 19 May 1894, Page 2

THE New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.)

SATURDAY, MAY 19, 1894. APPRECIATION OF GOLD.

With which are incorporated fhc Welling tonindependent, established 13$5>, b/hO, 'the New Zealander.

Pr is often urged that the results of the appreciation of gold are not what they seem. In other words, it is meant that a general fall in prices is not a calamity, because it does not disturb the. relative values. For example, if iS.ll fifty per cent., their purchasing power remains the same, becafiSO the cprinhoditibb 're- 1 quired for, bbstenaiaco and comfort have fallen egftatly, and the same Of the ulethods of investment. The theory is excellent, nothing botild bo apparently unanswerable-, yet the answer is very strong. It is that A Vast proportion of the world’s business has been arranged for fixed periods, more or less long. Tho interest on tho world’s national debts is a fixed quantity for indefinite periods; in agriculture the conditions are long rents and long mortgages; fixed income* prevail over a great proportion of the earth’s surface; and taxes are in some countries paid in gold. The consequence is the impossibility of adjusting expenditure according to income.?. The general all-round -effect of the appreciation, of gold is destroyed, and as these are leading factors in production and commerce, tho disturbance is disastrous. The result is that as enterprise is scotched the wages fund dwindles, and multitudes remain without any purchasing power whatever. To them the purchasing power of Wages is a mockery. Then there is the effect of tho oom> merce of the richest nation under tho sun, which lends money to all the world and draws tho interest annually in gold, which carries tho trade ol most of tho world and gets its freights paid in gold. It it all very well to point to tho superior purchasing power of the sovereign in this connection as a thing which blits both ways. But it does not cut both ways: Tho wealth of a country consists in its products. , The wealth of New Zealand, for instance, consists of wool, corn, meat, dairy produce, coal, timber, flax, gum, bullion. In foreign exchange the latter gets the advantage of tho appreciation of gold. But the other lines place us at a disadvantage. Wo have to pay more of our wealth to meet the fixed gold payments of four millions step* ling required by our annual engagements than was the case when tho obligations were incurred. The monetary Use of silver over so much of the earth’s surface is another element of disturbance. For so long as tho ratio is not fixed between silver and gold, the fluctuation sets up what is practically a protective duty in some countries, and an export bounty "in others. These are the things which destroy the general all-round effect of the ■appreciation of gold. They therefore form •a complete answer to tho argument that the results of tho appreciation of gold are not what they soem. Thus it is that the increase‘of the world’s wealth does not produce an increase of the world’s happiness, but augments tho starvation in the midst of plenty which disgraces our civilisation. The question is interesting to New Zealand, because depression in a new country of enormous resources and vast export is a form of the great modern disease of starvation in the midst of plenty. THE PUBLIC ACCOUNTS. It is amusing to read that when a particular construction of tho clause of a statute is supported by the practice of competent men during thirteen years,, that constructien must bo “ strained.” Since when have precedents under a law been held to bo precedents against it ? We are further, but not less absurdly, asked to believe that the gazetting of tho accounts was ordered in 1878 for the information of tho public when Parliament was not sitting. But at that time, as we pointed out yesterday, it was tho custom for Parliament to he in ' session before tho year’s accounts could bo audited. When t was made possible, by altering tho end of tho financial year from June to March, to gazette before Parliament mot, it was decided that gazetting was not required by Law until tho meeting. It is not a case of two wrongs making a right. There is but one wrong, and that wrong is the Post’s contention. The Post is the juryman who never mot eleven such obstinate fellows before. Mr Ballanoo’s practice of 1892, which overrides his practice of 1891, was in accordance with tho practice of the Government of which he was a member from 1884 to 1887. The Post insinuates that Mr Ballanoe was too ill in 1892 to think rightly. But he was not too ill to make a very fine Financial Statement, as his Financial Statement of 1892 undoubtedly was. Besides Mr Ballance was not ill between 1884 and 1887. As to the figures for 1892-93, given to the Post by Mr Ballance before his death, what have they got to do with the subject ? The figures, as a matter of fact, wore not given to the Post, for they were not at the time (March 31st) ready. That is evident from the fact that the Post, which now pretends to have had tho figures, was unable at the time to give us the amount of the surplus, and in no way protended to balance the accounts at all. If illness has anything to do with it, Mr Ballance must have been very ill when he gave them those figures for the complete abstract of the annual accounts. We are afraid that if illness had anything to do with the matter, the office of the Post must have been a perfect hospital. Not more happy is tho Post’s sham defence of Mr Ballance’s conduct in 1891. Mr Ballanoe wished no disrespect to his predecessor, and wanted to take no advantage. How, will the Post tell us, could there have been any advantage over Sir Harry Atkinson in the publication ? Mr Ballance simply wished to keep Sir Harry’s figures distinct frem his own ; just as Mr Ward wished to keep Mr Ballance’s.separate from his the following year. When he published the fourth quarter’s accounts. Wo balanced the figures on that occasion and gave the surplus correctly, as the Financial Statement proved. But that is neither hero nor there. We have shown that precedent and principle justify tho conduct of the Government, notwithstanding tho exceptions. But after all tho Post’s second article is worse humbug than its first. If its first meant anything, it meant that this Government was the first in our history to protend to read the law in this particular way. When that absurd insinuation is exploded tho Post falls hack on the conclusion that everybody except tho Post has been wrong for all time. Had the Post not boon ignorant of the precedents, we should never have heard of the matter at all. DIRTY ONEHUNGA. This dirty little borough is dirty not only on account of tho bad manners of its people, but by reason of their insanitary habits. What these are is told in an able report on the water supply of Onohimga, written in the Herald by a representative of that journal. Tho water supply of the borough is obtained, it appears, from some springs within the boundaries or dose to them.

The surface of these is covered with slime and woods, and the water is described as far from clean and fall of nnimalcuhe visible to the naked eye, This Is one end of the water supply question. Theotheris ln.the medical reports of the place, which a fortnight ago,, when thjs'ggpdrt was .drawn ftp, hhowed "that one 'per ©pnfj of the population was down with, typhoid.’fever. In "WeLing,tdh %-p rhaLV that in 1892 the propor'f i r'.i>, i~ c.t 2 per cent., and -that in 1893 it had fallen to 1 per cent. That establishes .a standard of comparison., IjejiWeehf two extremes l)ps . the (site.. el; tno borough. It. cphsislh "cf light, porous open soil,, resting on a thick layer of scoria real in all directions by fissures, the whole testing on a substratum of impervious clay. This etay forms the basin from which the springs of the water supply are fed- Now on the surface throughout the borough there is no provision for removing* the sewage and refuse. Theto ftrt, ft'6 sewage drains and. no Wight soil cbntracts, and. backyards And, gardens are left.. to, the dieted will of the inhabitants. .That.being the case it is unnecessary to tSiirniise that the soil"reedives everything .objectionable, either bh tho eijHaco. or below it. in the cesspits. 'The filtration is remarkably 'rapid, the soil being very porous, and tho scoria bed as open as a'pile of largo cinders, besides being crossed by open fissures. So complete is tho filtration that there are cesspit*? which have never been cleared since they were put down a quarter of a century ago. Now, where does the slime come from on the surface of the springs which are fed from the clay reservoir lying immediately under j that remarkably rapid and active filter known as tho Onehuttga Borough ? Can anyone bo surprised at the pro- j portion of typhoid in the place •? Tp | answer these questions would be a ‘waste of: time. The fact, is that, the borough; deserves the sbiihriqiXtit of dirty. We had; thought such a .state of things was im-; possible in New Zealand. We regret that, there is absolutely n 6 hope of improve- [ ment, for even the enterprising lady j Mayor has declared tb ah interviewer that) the borough is .too financially weak to; stand the expenditure required for sanitary inform. Ferhaps time and the increasing death-rate may teach the burgesses that dirt and death are tho same thing, though not quite spelt tho same way. Thou Onehunga will bo able to boast that though it possesses a Maori name its habits aro no longer aboriginal. At present that boast i* Pil't of tho power of its burgesses. SAMOA. A glance at tho map is quite sufficient to convince any impartial man that the Pre 1 mier is perfectly right in his objection to the German proposal for n> partition-. , The ruling fact is that Hifttloa is oU the direct lino of travel ami cable epniinan.iba'Hdb:, while Tonga is not, besides, is aiitonomous like "Pamon, but practically undetltht ‘protectorate of Great Britain already, as appeared when tho High Commissioner of the "Western Pacific deported Mr Shirley Baker, the high-handed Prime Minister of King George. Samoa,. on the other hand, wants to oolite under British protectorate, the present triple arrangement has proved a failure, and—m Oat important ;0f all—the Unit fid States have olfotcd through the iho'Uth 6f-their official representative ti/sHthdrilW. Tfiis/nari-ows the istue .so /that it lips .Between Great "Britain and Germany. Thus one half of the problem, .has been solved. Tho remainder ought hot to prove too much for Great Britain and Germany. They settled the partition of Africa, they ought to. bo able to deal with the smaller question of Samoa. It is a mere question of dollars.