BIMETALLISM. 571 



years ending 1891 it required one-fifth of our exports to cover the 

 corresponding liability; but for the year 1892, the statistics of 

 which are lately published, the comparison is still more alarming, 

 for out of a total export of £53,176,740 an amount of £12,206,660 

 was payable in interest, or very little less than one-fourth of the 

 entire amount. It is important to note that, while the gold value 

 of the exports declined in the second term of five years to £17 10s. 

 per head of the population, from £20 14s. in the first term, and 

 still further to £17 in 1892, the productive capabilities of the 

 colonies, as manifested in the tonnage returns, were increased — the 

 average tonnage in the first period being under three tons per head 

 of the population, and about four and a half tons during the second 

 period. Thus, while the money borrowed was to a large extent 

 spent in railways and other reproductive works, which did increase 

 the produce of the colonies, as illustrated by the shipping returns, 

 to the extent of over one-third, the money value of their jjroduc- 

 tion has been reduced to the extent of nearly one-fifth per head of 

 the population. 



Indications of the strain of these increasing burdens on the 

 resources of the colony have not been wanting in past years. The 

 increase in our Customs duties, the additions to direct taxes, the 

 efforts at retrenchment of public expenditure, are all signs of its 

 presence, and the future looms with more duties, more taxes, more 

 retrenchment. We have before us the fate of the goose that laid 

 the golden eggs. The overburdening of industries will speedily 

 result in their destruction, and our Governments will be brought 

 face to face with a deficit that will paralyse them. The financial 

 institutions of the country have already come under the Nemesis. 

 Men of business who will not recognise the cause blame their 

 institutions for reckless borrowing and more reckless lending, and 

 general mismanagement. These accusations only follow the 

 collapse The same men who indulge in these strictures may have 

 been directing these institutions during prosperous years. Our 

 banking probably has been rash because it was prosperous, but 

 the cause of the fatality lies much deeper than any actual mis- 

 management. The depreciated ^old price of all securities, owing 

 to the reduced value of their produce, is the overpowering cause. 

 Had our wool and wheat maintained their former price, these 

 securities would have been full value and saleable. We argue 

 from this that no reconstruction without revival in values can 

 assure stability of our financial institutions. By capitalising 

 liabilities the burden is shared by the creditors, but the Nemesis 

 is still over every undertaking, and the increasing gold appreciation 

 sinks them still deeper in the mire. The further progress of 

 depreciation depends altogether upon how soon the equilibrium 

 between gold and commodities is established. If, as we still see, 

 the drain upon the volume of gold for the use of new currencies 

 continues, the process of depreciation must also continue, and our 



