The Star. THURSDAY, JUNE 13, 1895. To-Day.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5283, 13 June 1895, Page 2

The Star. THURSDAY, JUNE 13, 1895. To-Day.

The suggestion we made yesterday in connection with raising a fund to provide work during the winter for men out of employ, was referred to by the Mayor of Christehurch at the meeting: held last evening in the City Council Chamber. Every man who has the good fortune to be in work,' even if he is only a halftimer, can manage to b pare a shilling if he, will; and, every woman can spare nixpence. There, is naturally a looking to the- well-to-do in an emergency such as the present, on the principle that from those to '.whom much has been given, much is required; but there is nevertheless a responsibility, upon, every worker to help his or her fellows, and it would be a shame and a' reproach if this were not recognised and acted upon. We share in the firm faith of the Mayor, that by means of subscription lißts sent to the various factories, a Butmtantial sum will be raised; and it may, we • suppose, be taken for granted thas similar lists will be circulated in all places of business, for theße, too, contain many workers. Let there be a cheery response > to this special appeal, for the cheerful giver ib proverbially .blessed } and let the response.be as. prompt as may be possible. : : .'>!.'..'.. ' ■'"' . ' ' ■.'-.■' ■.

• .' One of . the :' most coritribu-, tions to the literature- arising out of the war between :_China and Japan, is f urnished' by" Mr Whitehead, a member of the Legislative Council of Hongkong, who read a specially prepared paper at a meeting of the .Colonial Institute. Mr Whitehead, who, frjOaj'the position he occupies, may be regarded as one speaking r ~ with authority, is evidently firmly convinced that both China and Japan are destined to play an important part in the world's commerce and manufactures, and that great developments will come about in the near future. Speaking, of Chinese pbssibilities with ' regard to the manufacture of fabrics, Mr "Whitehead admits that this country has only made a beginning in. the setting up of factories for spinning and weaving ; but still, the. beginning has been mude:— "On the river Tang Teze and in the neighbourhood of Shanghai, some five mills are already working, and others are in course of construction. It is estimated that they will contain about 200,000 spindles, and some of them have commenced work. The capital employed is entirely native, and with peace . restored in these regions there is,! with honest capable management, while .the present . monetary system continues, ieally no limit to the expansion and development of industries in Oriental countries." ' i

Hbrbpbom it will be seen that Mr Whitehead is not among those who have fancied that the results of the war, so disastrous to China, would throw that country back and paralyse enterprise. On the contrary, he holds that out of China's military defeat will come China's industrial resurrection, and that this will be largely brought about by relieving the people from the weight of oppression thai; has been imposed upon them by the Mandarins. He says :—

" China's mineral and other resources are known to be enormous, and at the very door they have millions of acres of land admirably adapted to the cultivation of cotton, which, though of short staple, is suitable for. mixing with other qualities, In the Shanghai tiver in December, 1893, there were at one time no less than five ocean-going steamers taking in cargoes of China-grown cotton for transportation to Japan, there to be converted by Japanese mills and Japanese hands into yara and cloth. The Japanese are now importing for their mills cotton direct from America and elsewhere. After this terrible awakening, should China, with her three hundred millions .of intensely induetr'ouß people, open her vast inland provinces by the introduction of railways.Jier interior waterways to steam traffic, and her boundless resources to development, it is impossible to form an estimate of the consequences." - - - -> ; . ~, r There is, at anyrate, good ecope for ■ the imagination, and the writer proceeds to picture- -what would be practically a,. new industrial hemisphere, thickly populated with industrial < races. And then corner the question, How will such a development affect the interests of Great Britain ?

Hbkb we are once more brought face .to face with the bimetallic problem— white money versus yellow money j and Mr i Whitebead believes that there is more, to be feared, under the existing currency conditions,- from the white money than from the yellow man. " Let me explain," he says, " that silver will still employ the same quantity of Oriental labour as it did twenty or thirty years ago. The inadequacy of our monetary standard therefore allows Eastern countries to now employ at least 100 per cent more of labour for a given amount of gold than they could do twenty-five years ago. To make ■ this important: statement qnite clear allow me to give the following example : In 1870 ten rupees were tbe equivalent of one sovereign under the joint standard of gold and silver, and paid twenty men for one day. To-day twenty rupees are about the equivalent of one sovereign, so that for twenty rupees forty men can- be engeged for one day,' instead of twenty men aa in 1870. Against such a disability British labour cannot possibly compete." He goes on to point oat, so that there I

shall be no possible mistake as to his contention, that it is feasible now to employ as much labour in Asia for four shillings of English money, or the equivalent thereof in silver, as could have been employed twenty yeara ago for eight shillings, or its then equivalent in silver.

So much for the appreciation of gold, ! aud the proportionate depreciation of . silver. If these statements are accepted, ; it follows that British labour cannot hope { to compete, on the existing monetary basis, . with Oriental Jabour, und that in the end, if no currency change is brought about, or unless the workers of Great Britain prepare themselves to work at inordinately low rates of pay, " British industrial trades must inevitably leave British shores, because their products will be superseded by the establishment of industries in eilver-dtandard countries." Of the industrial progress of Japan, Mr Whitehead tells ub that the neighbourhood of Osaka and Kioto is now a surprising spectacle of industrial activity. In a very brief period of time no less than fifty-nine cotton spinning and weaving mills have sprung into existence there, with the aid of upwards of twenty . millions of dollars, entirely native capital. They now have 770,874 Bpindleß, and last year competent authorities estimated the annual output of these mills at over 500,000 bale* of yarn, valued roughly at forty millions of dollars, or at the present exchange, say, four million pounds sterling. In short, Japanese industries, not only spinning and weaving, but of all classes, have increased by leaps and bounds. '