The Temuka Leader SATURDAY, MARCH 6, 1886. HARD TIMES COMING.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1476, 6 March 1886, Page 2

The Temuka Leader SATURDAY, MARCH 6, 1886. HARD TIMES COMING.

A writer in the Lyttelton Tim's of Thursday last says that “ 1000 farmers and others in Canterbury are this coming winter to be forceclosed upon and ousted from their homes hec«nse they are behind hand with their interest,” and he gives this information on I lie strength of what has been said by “ a gentleman connected with the large loan companies.” This is really distressing news, but not more so than the fact that on last Wednesday there assembled in Christchurch 800 men to proclaim that they were out of employment and could not get anything to do, Jt is non the middle of harvest, and in the middle of the greatest grain-growing district in New Zealand, to find so many out of mployment at such a season of the tear portends great distress amongst the working classes during the coming winter. Under existing circumstances nothing else could be expected. Trade ts at a standstill, nothing is saleable ; everything is tearfully dull. Grain is certainly fetching a much better price this year, and the yield is good, but. there is very little of it, and any improvement thus experienced is counterbalanced by the tall in the price of mutton, and oilier things. Sheep, ahoy* all, are ruinously cheap. Vhe prices they are fetching are so low that persons living in distant places do not think it would pay them to drive them to mar ket. We have beard of some sheep seling at ninepence each, and excellent merino ewes were disposed of at a local sale a short time ago for one shilling each. To make things worse, the Washdyke Meat Preserving Company will not boil down this year because the price of tallow is so low that it would not pay. The question is often asked : What is the cause of mutton being so cheap when the frozen meat in the Rngiish market has gone up? The answer is plain. Farmers have not cropped their land lately, as they used to do in former years, they have turned their attention to shepp-braeding instead, with the result that there are too many of them in the country. The dry season lias despoiled them of feed, and consequently they cannot fatten the sheep fit tor export.

The outlook for the coming winter is therefore extremely gloomy. In a prophecy we published a few weeks ago it was said that in this year the whole world would cry for help. We are afraid the prophecy will be partially fulfilled ibis coming winter, inasmuch as that there will be great distress. Collections are being made in England at present to assist the unemployed, and it is said that it is intended to appeal to the colonies to assist. So far as this colony is concerned we are afraid it will have enough to do to look after its own poor unless something is done to procure employment for them. Wo pro dieted this distress when the House last session cut down the Government Estimates by half a million of money, and we regret to find the forecast we then gave of the future coming true. However, through a rift in the dark cloud whose dismal shadow enshrouds our immediate prospect*, we fancy we can see gleams of future prosperity. I'he writer in the Lyttleton Times who gives currency to the report that 1000 farmers are to be ruthlessly flung out of their homes this coming winter, favors something being done in the way of giving relief to farmers, and (he unemployed in Christchurch last Wednesday urged the necessity of establishing a National Bank. Our only hope, therefore, is that the distress will force people to think of this, and that its establishment will be thus expedited. There appears to us no other possible way of averting general rain. As we have often pointed out, we most send out of this colony yearly about £.5,000,000, and the question must naturally occur to any one who refl eta on this, Where are we to get it? Not from our ex ports, because they will go to pay for our imports ; not from what is coming to us from foreign countries, for no country ones us anything ; we are in debt everywhere, There is only one way of making up Ibis money, and that is by borrowing it, and borrowing means increasing our liabilities and sinking deeper and deeper into the mire. There must come an end to borrowing when, like the Americans, we cannot get anyone to lend to us, and then will com' 1 the crash, for we can no longer carry on and pay our way. We could aver such a calamity by establishing a National Bank, and by turning the balance of trade in our favor. This is what the Americans did. They issued paper money, and put on protective duties that n>ade their exports much greater than their imports, and from being a nation that could not get a loan of £1.000,000 they rose to an extraordinary state of prosperity. The Americans made a terrible mistake with regard to their note currency, and consequently brought paper money into disrepute. It is very easy to avoid this. Let the notes be made payable on demand ; let the gold dug out of the earth be utilised ; let the Government keep a certain percentage of money on hand to meet any desire on the part of note holders to get cash for them, and in three months the whole country will settle down to accept them as contentedly as they would spin.

There is no oilier way <ut of the ilifficully. It is impossible that we can continue to borrow money in England lo pay English bond-holders, English money-lenders and English rcnnufao lurers. The en j must come, for sooner or later our credit will be stopped, just as American credit was once, and then where will we get money ? We have pul this matter before onr renders till we nro tired of it, bu' they seem to take very little notice of it. The time is fast approaching when they must notice it, and when they must take action in it too, if they desire to save themselves from min. With mutton bo cheap that it is being given to pigs, and pigs so cheap that they are hardly worth killing the mutton for, it is time, we think, that people ought to reflect, and take active steps to change the present state of 1 hings if possible. ■rrriTTrm vrfliriTniffl<wiiriin M iwi<i>MMiriiiimwwiwnwaßrTrnnniriiHiiiiiMiiM m