THE BUGBEAR OF DEPRESSION.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XVIII, Issue 1215, 20 January 1886, Page 3

THE BUGBEAR OF DEPRESSION.

The popular mind just now is racked into a state of the most helpless despondency. An inability to indulge in the unbridled extravagance that marked the early days of the Colony has been magnified into a national calamity, and called by the appalling name of "depression." With the growth of every new country, the expansion of its industries, and the development of its resources, the struggle for existence invariably becomes more fierce and protracted. This is a fundamental law in the growth of nations as immutable as any in nature. This law is now unfolding itself in New Zealand, as it has done in other countries of birth anterior to ours. To limit the operation of this law, if not, indeed, to render it entirely inoperative, Mr Henry George employed all the resources of his thoughtful and earnest mind. It is quite within the compass of modern thought to supply a code of economical laws more equitable and truer to modern experience and requirements than those of Adam Smith or his compeers ; but the adoption of such laws would depend not on their equity so much as on the forces to which they were opposed. The interests of capital and monopoly at the present day are paramount to, because more powerful than, any popular economical theories that could be advanced. Indeed " material progress," or the distribution of wealth, has never been regulated by wi9 maxims of political economy ; rather has that science, with servile exactitude, adapted ! itself to the selfishness of the human heart and to the theory of the survival of the fittest. We, however, in New Zealand need not concern ourselves with the pundits or reformers of Europe, or their remedies for the mitigation of social misery. We are possibly to some extent deprived of the means that engendered extravagance at an earlier period, but in return we are more than recompensed by the commendable habits of thrift, temperance, and sustained industry which such a change renders imperative, In every other respect, instead of being afflicted by depression, the people in this Colony of every class enjoy life and know less of its bitterness than, perhaps, any other people on the face of the earth. This perpetual wail of distress sounds extremely hollow and unreal in a country where the people are the rulers, where millions of acres of land, mountains of rninerajs, harbors and. rivers are yet the property of the State. The farmers who, of all others have less cause of complaint, are loudest and most persistent in proclaiming their distress. They are constantly decrying the land laws, yet, though possessing the power, they make no intelligent or united effort for their improvement or repeal. In the Old Country the majority of those men would be living in a state of miserable servitude without the slightest hope of ever being able to raise themselves to a position of ease or independence. In New Zealand they are omnipotent on their homesteads, independent of king or kaiser, and have a fair prospect, by judicious management, and discretion, of securing an honorable independence. Every form of indulgence and of national generosity has been exhausted in the endeavor, not only to promote their welfare, but to protect them from their own imprudence ; for it is generally understood that in the greater number of instances where farmers have experienced misfortune their ruin has been accomplished by their own rashness. The desire to become estate owners instead of farmers is the fatal bar to their prosperity. Where this folly is avoided the position of New Zealand agriculturists is superior to that of the same class in any part of the world. The same remark, though in a more modified form, applies to all other industrial classes. Laborers and miners in possession of a comfortable homestead, almost a free gift from the State, are more happily circumstanced than the average English farmer. Contrasted with that of the English and Irish laborer their lot is, indeed, a blissful one. But in the towns and cities while the cry of depression is loud and unceasing, there are evidences of superfluity and extravagance that must perplex and bewilder a stranger. In Auckland £30,000 are recklessly hazarded on the issue of a horse race. In the same city gumdiggers and bushmen drink themselves into insanity, and distribute small fortunes among the publicans for the. privilege of a brief debauch. 'No one will dare to say that among these men or their patronTs the there is aught that savours depression, aotops and; bogus lecturers can dray at pleaure on the " depressed " public. Excursions, entailing a considerable expenditure of

'moneyT "are '''oTJgafiised' and are liberally patronised by all classes of the people. Mechanics of every grade are in receipt of wages that must seem fabulous to the starving craftsmen of Europe. Traders in towns and cities, despite the competition that accompanies increased production and the influx of population, are able to live in splendid ease, and initiate their children into all the expensive accomplishments and frivolties of the day. In like manner I might enumerate the various professions and branches of the Civil Service, just to show how mythical is this terrible "depression." A future generation may probably complain, and with sufficient reason ; but by then we shall have passed away and escaped, it is to be hoped, to a country no worse than the one we at present inhabit. Amcus.