BIMETALLISM.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10263, 22 January 1895, Page 7

BIMETALLISM.

TO THE KDITOU.

Sin,—One would have thought that Messr3 > Holland, M'Dormld, sud Company would by this time havo buried their bimetallic ghost in th» dasfc thty imve taieed, smothered it in paper, or drowned it iv ink. Not so, apparently. In your issue of 19th insfc. you publish a leader in quite the true bimrUUic style. Will you allow ma a few words of. uiseonnccled comment. "Your friends' arguments were at first rested on this base: " Prices nro estimated in the quantity of legal tender money in tbe world." This ia absolutely untrue and can ecoily be shown bo, but there is no aced : their doctrine is new and it is for its evangeta to pyovo ita truth— they have l;csn challenged on this point before, but oa!y evuda it. 'Xha term this statement lias now token in (I quote from your leader) : " The general loviil of prices depends' very laryc-ly upoa 'the quantity of legal tender money of the world compared with the work it lian to do.'" Do you call this an evasion, or an equivocation, of tbe original proposition ? Call it what you ple&se; Ibu public can judge. Why do Dot you put tbe point as it realiy is—viz., that prices ara estimated ia all the money of the world in circulation ; that faeio is gold money, silver money, coppar monsy, and credit money in circulation ; and thsfc it is in th« total of these that prices are estimated ? Farther, chat the amount of money of the world i-s the ipiantity of money of. the world m-Mtipliedby the speed with which it circulates? Why not be straightforward and say this, and that this being true, it necessarily follows th>t dull trade (slow circulation) decreases money, and, consequently, prices ? Why will biraßtallielifl co jiorsistectly overlook credit monsy in their dissertations? It does fifty times the work of auy other kind of money, and must neeeßoarily be a most important faotoir in the matter of prices. True thr.t credit is based on legal tender money, but it ia not limited by it—a very different state of afl.iirs. Will you please give a fair i»ud square answer on this point;, of how pricss are estimated, with reasons or an illustration, so that you and I and the public rosy judge how far the truth goes with you ? You have now identified yourself with ths bimetillists, have givew wide publicity to their views, and I claim ths courtesy of a reply. Now, for £ disconnected point. Tbe bimet&llists asserted that it w<-.s Germany in 1873, taking advantage of the //old war indemnity paid her by Fi-juce, demonetised silver and caused all the trouble. They have dropped this point too. Why? First, because what had Germany in 1873 to do with England or our relations to her ; next, because the gold war indemnity wai a myth. Still they (tiie bitptalliats) used it to misrepresent. Another disconnected point : A gentleman from Christchnrch spoke in Duaedin on the bimetallic Bide (a clever paper, the best thi»y have yet produced), but seu what an extraordinary conf usipa be gob into on the old sore of " overproduction." He started to show the relations between price* and production, but drifted into the relations of ptople and production. Thus : Over-production of goods produces low prices of goods ; there aro low prices of goods, but —they cannot be produced by over-production beeausa "there are hungry and naked men in the world " ! Heavsns ! and yet this beautiful nmi siqidtnr was reasived by a bimetallic audience with " Hear, hear !'

You iD«.ke certain statements about our national debt and the decline in our net income to meet the interest on that debt—a statement, lam afraid, too sadly true. But your deduction.—thai; monometallism is to blamt>—that's the unjust point. Why not puS it before the public in its Hake* "simplicity, thus : We borrowed largely and squaodered our loans ; or, more mildly if you like, we Lorrowed when money waa dear — when everything was dear, so fca sp?ak, — ■ and .now that money and everything in cheap, feel the rub? "What did we barrow? So many ounces of gold. What did we undertake to pay ? So many ouaces of gold (or ite v»lue, in either case). Not wool or wheat. Why not do it ? IV. is insolvency, repudiation, not to. You say, " It i 3 cot whether this party or that shall remain in power, but whether we shall remain a solvent country." Can you tell me where the <iiffereuc3 between inability to pay more than 10s ip the pound and a determination not to pay more than 10s in the pouud come in ? You call the first dishonourable, the secund juat. I call the fitsi misfortune, the seooad robbery. But we do not ccc with the same eyes. Howe'/er, here's the point: England haß not artificially raised the value of money since we borrowed, but you wish, and pretend, to artificially lower its value—only it canaot be dene. If yon ask,. What is the remedy in our case ? I say. Readjust oar loans—convert, at a lower rate of interest. That is legitimate

A fine commentary on the bimetallic view of gold being artificially appreciated appeared in your cablegrams of the 18th inst..—-" The Scotch banks have reduced the rate of interest on deposit to one per cent., which is the lowest on record." It was 1Q per cent, in London some months ago. Unless yon write in ignorance yon: are cruel and wicked to hang out such a will-o'-the-wisp ss bimetallism.—l aro, &c, January 21. Peter Fenn*.