THE Temuka Leader. TUESDAY, MARCH 28, 1893. ~ THE PRICE OP GRAIN.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2482, 28 March 1893, Page 2

THE Temuka Leader. TUESDAY, MARCH 28, 1893. ~ THE PRICE OP GRAIN.

The price of grain is at present lower than it has been at any time since the 10th century. During the Middle Ages, in the 14th and 15th centuries, wheat was sold at sixpence per bushel, but other things were correspondingly cheap. During the 16th century the price wetn up rapidly, till it reached a fabulous height, and ever since it has never been so low as at the present time. The worst feature of it is, however, that there appears no great prospect of it going up very soon. Jb'or several years now farmers have been hoping against hope that the trade would eventually turn, and that the price of grain would be restored to a paying level. Year after year, however, with the exception of a spasmodic upward jump occasionally, prices have remained low. There cannot be the slightest doubt but the cause is that more grain is being produced than the world is able to purchase. The world could consume a great deal more than it does ; there are millions starving, but these have not the money to buy, and hence, we believe, is the secret of the low prices. In a pamphlet published in America we find it is alleged that the stocks of wheat in the world after the harvest of last year were unusually light, and that a great shrinkage had taken place since the previous year. The surplus in 1891 is put down at 2,160,000,000 bushels, and in 1892 at 2,115,000,000 bushels, showing a shrinkage of 45 million bushels. Now such a large shrinkage a<« that ought to be felt, and yet the market appears more inclined to go down than get up. We remember a few years ago, when prices were very low that wheat jumped up suddenly in the latter end of July and beginning of August. Who knows but it may do so this year ? but still we shall not undertake the responsibility of advising anyone to keep his wheat until then. We merely give the information, and let those who like to act upon it do so. There is certainly a ray of hope in the fact that a shrinkage of 45,000,000 bushels has taken place in stocks held in hand, and it ought to exercise some influence on the market eventually, but even then we are convinced any increase which may take place will not be permanent. The production of wheat at the present time is enormous, and this is the result of machinery, low freights, and speedy facilities for removing it from one country to another. Russia, India, and America, are producing wheat at an enormous rate now, and are able to supply it cheaply. The fall in the price of grain has practically ruined the English farmer, and he is now at his wit's end to make both ends meet. He has been discussing this lately, and he shows now a disposition to abandon freetiade and go back to the Corn Laws. It is to be hoped that he will not be able to give effect to this idea. We favor protection of industries, so as to give employment to workmen, but we object to taxing their food supply so as to maintain the rents of landlords at their present high standard. The landlords of England fixed the rents when prices were high, and now they want these maintained at the cost of the British ratepayer. We feel certain that people at the present time are too enlightened to agree to any such thing, and that instead of the price of grain going up, the high rents will come down. To protection that would keep the labor of England for the English people we should not object, but protection that would keep up high rents for landlords would be cruel, misehievous, and*impolitic. The proper thing for the British Parliament to do, therefore, is to pass a fair rents bill, and insist on the landlords bringing down the rents in conformity with ruling prices. .But this will not do us any good in this colony. What we want is higher prices for our products, and we shall not have the slightest influence in that direction till our population grows large enough to consume all the ; wheat we can grow. The wheat growing area of New Zealand is limited. We can only produce a certain - + itv, and until the population is quau. _ * +o consume all that we shall larga enougu »w ~«s«a8, and must not be able to influence take what we can get.

THE GERMAN ARMY BILL. Ths Parliament of Germany appears to be emancipating itself from the thraldom under which Prince Bismarck kept it, and to begin to feel that it has a soul and a mind of its own. It has rejected the Army Bill, which proposed to increase the army by 72,000 privates and 12,000 non-commissioned officers, and thus heap an increase of taxation on the backs of the people. The reason given for demanding this increase ia that the French have 70 battalions and 276 guns more than Germany at the present time, and religious as the Emperor is, he believes, like Napoleon, that Providence fights on the side of the biggest battalions. It was so in the late Franco-Prussian War. At that time the Germans had 104 battalions, 400 guns, and 130 squadrons of cavalry more than the French, and the result was victory for the biggest battalions. The German Emperor now finding the boot on the other leg, is trying' to place his army on an equal footing with that of France, but his Parliament will not have it, and hence his trouble. We learn that the Emperor wants to interview the Pope, but that the only condition on which the latter will receive him is on the same terms as he received him before. There can be no doubt as to the object of the Emperor's visit to the Pope. There is a Catholic part)' in the German Parliament j which is called the " Centre Party," and which is supposed to be amenable to Papal influence. There can be no doubt but the Emperor's object in seeking an interview with the Pope is to try to induce him to influence this party in favor of the Army Bill. When, however, the Pope is placing difficulties in the way it looks as if he was not inclined to render the assistance required. It is rather notable that Protestant Governments very frequently appeal to the Popo when they are in trouble. Mr Gladstone, when he waa at enmity with the Irish people, sect Mr

Bellingham as an ambassador to Rome to induce the Pope to interfere in Irish affairs, and yet Mr Gladstone wrote the Vatican Decrees. Lord Salisbury, in a similar way, has tried to induce the Pope to condemn Irish agitation, and has been only partially successful. The plan of campaign was condemned, and now there is a suspicion that the reason the Archbishop of Armagh has been made a Cardinal instead of the Archbishop of Dublin, is that some influence from England was brought to bear on Rome. The inconsistency is that Lord Salisbury condemns Rome Rule, and appeals to Rome for assistance is most glaring. In one breath he is seeking the aid of Rome Rule, and in the other condemning it. Really the absurdities developed by political intrigue are amazing.

ASSAULT. Baron Hastings, charged with an assault on a nurse girl in Regent Park, London, has been fined £SO. This is becoming so common an occurrence in England, now that we feel inclined to believe Max O'Rell when he says no single man is safe alone in England. He says no man would dream of travelling alone in a railway carriage with a strange woman in England, or go into the parks alone at certain hours, for so sure as he does he will meet with some one to whom he must pay blackmail, or else have his character blasted for ever. He says there are several women in England making a living out of this; they go about until they find a good mark alone, then scream, and unless he pays handsomely for silence, he is arrested, and charged with indecent assault. The result is that no one who has any regard for his reputation will ever be found in certain places alone, and that such as neglect this precaution are invariably caught, and made to pay dearly for it. A great deal of this goes on without anyone becoming the wiser of it, for men prefer to pay than be exposed. Now this is a terrible social condition, and we presume if it were not true Max O'Rell would not have taken the responsibility for it. We all know that Max O'Rell is a humorist, but he has stated all this in all seriousness, and his assertions, backed up by the frequency with which persons in high stations are brought before courts of Justice, renders it probable that there is a great deal of truth in it. If so, it is a terrible social condition, and one which ought to be vigorously dealt with. Hitherto it was considered dangerous for a woman to travel alone, but now she goes all over the world, and into the most unheard of places, as a newspaper correspondent, and so on, and it is the irony of fate, if her day has come, to turn the tables on man. If man must henceforth seek female protection whenever he takes his walks abroad, he may well exclaim " Oh ! the times ; Oh! the morals." PRIME MINISTER. The life of a colonial Prime Minister will soon come to be regarded like that of the policeman, as not a happy one. In New Zealand hard work has been the cause of ill-health of two Primiers, in New South Wales and Victoria, bankruptcy. Two Prime Ministers have in succession become bankrupt, under somewhat similar circumstances in New South Wales. Both have gone Home, both have created a great stir in the Old Country, both have dined with Queens, Princes, Lords, Dukes, and Earls, and both have returned to the colony and filed a declaration of inability to pay their debts. This is not good for the colonies; it is not good for us to have it said that our public men are in a state of insolvency, but at the same time it shows that money cannot be made out of politics, and that whoever embarks on a political career runs the risk pf eventually ending in financial ruin. Sir George Dibbs has had a lively time of it since his return. On his return Parliament was sitting, and he found a vote of censure waiting for him. This being disposed of, it was followed up by three motions of no confidence, but he got through them all. The other day again another motion of no confidence was nearly carried. It was only lost by one or two votes. All this on top of a knowledge of his bankrupt condition must have been terribly worrying, and it is wonderful how well he bore up with it all. Verily there are troubles and anxieties in high as well as in low places,