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Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume LIX, Issue 9211, 2 November 1908, Page 4

Wβ got an outside opinion of our finance from the Australasian Banking Record for October. It replies to certaiu charges which have been brought against Australasian Banks trading in this Dominion, but it is hardly necessary to dwell on these, as they have been already sufficiently refuted, and no intelligent business man gives credence to them. The summing up of the article, however, deserves to be reproduced, because it is just the com monsense view of the present position which needs to bo drilled into both politicians and traders. Our contem- J porary says:—"What is really the matter in New Zealand is that production, at least in total value, has declined, that the expenditure of the people has increased, and that a high ratmo of values for property has been roachod. To comply with every demand for increased accommodation would mean, under existing circumstances, a fo&toriiig of inflation, which Would inevitably be followed by losses. NevV Zealand has to increase its production and to spend less, and within a comparatively short time the monetary stringency which now manifests itself will pass away." There are no financial mysteries, excepting the cobwebs spun by politicians for party purposes. If the General Government, our local bodies, traders, and workers follow the advice given by the Banking Record the present monetary stringency will pass away within a comparatively short time. If they don't follow this sound advice it will last longer. Wo acquired a similar wisdom some fifty odd years ago, when we read that delightful novel, David Copperfield, for the first time, and were impressed with the wonderful Micawber dictum, "Annual income, twenty pounds; aunual expenditure, nineteen nineteen six. Result happiness. Annual income, twenty pounds; annual expenditure, twenty pounds ought six. Result, misery. The blossom is blighted, the leaf is withered, the God of day goes •lown upon the dreary scene, and —and in short you are for ever floored." There is more sense in this extravaganza than in all the Colonial Treasurers' financial statements that we have subsequently heard of and perused.