The Waikato Times, THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE, AND KAWHIA ADVOCATE. Established Thirty-One Years. THE OLDEST DAILY NEWSPAPER IN THE WAIKATO. THE LARGEST CIRCULATION OF ANY DAILY PAPER SOUTH OF AUCKLAND. TUESDAY, MARCH 29, 1904. A GOOD FAILURE.

Waikato Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6387, 29 March 1904, Page 2

The Waikato Times, THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE, AND KAWHIA ADVOCATE. Established Thirty-One Years. THE OLDEST DAILY NEWSPAPER IN THE WAIKATO. THE LARGEST CIRCULATION OF ANY DAILY PAPER SOUTH OF AUCKLAND. TUESDAY, MARCH 29, 1904. A GOOD FAILURE.

We expressed ii hope some time ago that Mr Brown, or some other great cotton speculator, might come a salutary financial cropper, believing that by this means the market might be restored to something like normal conditions, that operatives in Lancashire might again have enough to eat and wear, and that the downfall of one gambler in raw material might prove, for a little while at least, a warning to others. Now comes the news of the sensational failure of Mr D. G. Sully, who seems to have succeeded Mr Brown in the control of the cotton supply. It is good news, for we do not suppose Mr Sully will have to go into the workhouse, but we hope a number of people in England will be able to come out of such institutions. The fact that scarcity of cotton leads to better prices for wool is, of course, a temporary benefit to New Zealand, but it is at the cost ofjao much suffering elsewhere, that our gratification must be of a greatly modified kind. It is said that a few months ago, when Mr Sully had forced up the price of cotton to about 7d, he could have withdrawn from the gamble with profits variously estimated at from two million to five million dollars. He thought he could make more by holding on. He did so and induced the friends, without whose co-operation success was impossible, to continue to back him up They consented, but at last one of them, it appears, felt the cruelty of the thing was too great for longer continuance, and chose to be disloyal to his financial associates rather than bear any longer a s.are of the responsibility for their monstrous proceedings. Hence the cratih. It can hardly be supposed that Mr Sully's failure will for any length of time act as a deterrent to others. He and his followers had before them the failure of Letter's wheat corner and many other catastrophes of a precisely similar nature; and those who make haste to be rich will generally believe that they themselves know just when to withdraw from a gamble, taking their profits with them. The attempts to encourage cotton growing within the Empire, which are being fostered by the Imperial Government, are therefore as important and needful as ever, but the promoters are probably

too sanguine if they suppose that they can by this means make the cotton industry quite independent of the American speculator. The Sully of the future may have confederates or agents in West Africa, Queensland, Fiji and India. Another suggestion, coming from a prominent man in the English cotton mill district, is that the Government should press for an international treaty, signed by all the Powers, stipulating that no man, when offered reasonable terms, should retain raw material to the disadvantage of the rest of the community. This would be a heroic remedy, but a just one. To administer it would, however, bo extremely difficult, if not impossible. The line between legitimate and illegitimate dealing would be very hard to draw, and the movements of the market are far more rapid than the deliberations of any judicial authority which might be concerned therewith ould possibly be. The whole problem of cotton supply is one which cannot be solved in a day, and Mr Sully's failure, happy event though it is, will only be of temporary benefit.