THE APPRECIATION OF COLD.

New Zealand Times, Volume LVII, Issue 2413, 19 January 1895, Page 4

THE APPRECIATION OF COLD.

i'O Tttit Jini'foiii Siii, —Iu his lottef irl ybUHtoUB of yesterday; Mr G. Bhdtazyh intimates to ..the bimetallists that they ate annihilated at ode fell swoop. As a elose student of the controversy, fof abollt, ton.yßats;,.! tyog, to point blit that the. “logic of facts" is against Mr ShatiSyn;, If ,lie Will turn up Ml - Tidgiaii’B Bpijk “ Money, aM . Labour " fie Will find a table giving the goll yield throughout the., Century;, Snd (l along with, it ali, index line based on MulfiaU’s statistics of, price's. This table will show him that the gold question is the lover behind the variations of prices. It shows that when gold became .appreciated by its being made the only “ legal tender ” under Lord Liverpool’s Act of 1816, the prices Of average products came down with a rush, and misery and destitution followed iu the train; that when the gold yield of 1852 reached the extraordinary value of ,£36,000,00!) sterling, prices went up, with a boom as the result of the depreciation of the precious metal consequent on that big addition to the world’s bullion s that as the yield of gold has fallen, or as it has increased during the century, prices have fallen and risen in direct' sympathy with and as a result of the variations. Wo have, further, the facts that, notwithstanding the enormous geld yield of 1852, the best financial authorities of that time considered that yield Was not more than sufficient to meet the rapidly-growing Wants 6f increasing commerce and population; that as the gold yield bAs increased people have been able to largely reduCe their debts, while os the gold yield has fallen off people have pot deeper and deeper into debt. For some years how there has been practically no addition to the world’s bullion, although commerce and population have been increasing, making, a grCatet add greater demand On it, and steadily appreciating its value till it is now at an average annual rise of 5 per cent. It may be asked what has become of the gold yield of late years, as it has run from 15 to 24 millions a year ? Well, statistics show that the whole of it has gone into jewellery and the arts, with the exception of about three millions a year, It is estimated that amount makes no addition to the world’s bullion, as it no more than makes up for wear and tear and loss. Conservative as ho is, the Bight Hon A. J. Balfour, who, since he Was chairman of the Currency Commission, has devoted much time and attention to the subject, states thqt the position is now so serious us to threaten the stability of the nation, and he contends that it is better to have a depreciating currency than an appreciating one, if it is found impossible to arrive at a system of uniform standard from year to year-. Lord Fairer’s statement, quoted by Mr Pbarazyn, goes for nothing, as most people know that the paper in circulation is in proportion to the active bullion at a ratio of about 30 per cent. Our bluebooks show that last year New Zealand exported £900,000 of specie, and the people have felt the effects in “tight” money. Mr Pharazyn thinks the glut of gold in England settles the bimetallists. He forgets that England is the capitalist centre of the world, that payments, have to be made in gold in London, and that most of the world is like New Zealand, having to ship gold to London. Consequently, it accumulates without employment, and will accumulate -there in the hands of a few large capitalists, and at the expense of the rest of the world, till the tendency will be for the borrowing nations and colonies to reach such a state as that reported from Newfoundland. Of course, the big gold owners will try to make people believe the fault is not theirs, but they did not subscribe the £IOO,OOO entrusted to Mr Ernest Seyd to bribe the American Senate to sacrifice their country to the gold-bug without knowing that it would pay them to do so by farthering the appreciation of gold, and so enriching themselves though the rest of the world and of humanity should suffer.—l am, &c., VVoodville, Jau.9, E. A. Haggen. I