336 EEPORT— 1891. 



fooled" during -which this subject had been advocated by Miv 

 Verrall. Shades of Bathgate and Macandrew, fortunate that 

 vou are no longer in the presence of such a Solomon ! 



To the question of State issue of notes is related the twin 

 subject of land-monopoly, to which I can in this connection 

 make but little reference, save to note that the influence of 

 land-monopoly in Victoria was so potent that my paper on 

 " Small Holdings of Land the Mainstay of Individuals and 

 Nations" was only noticed in the just-published "Transac- 

 tions" of this Association by its title. I freely admit the 

 feebleness of my attempt to deal with such a great question ; 

 the importance of the subject was the same, nevertheless. 

 Often has my attention been directed to the progress of assisted 

 settlement on small holdings in your beautiful islands, inaugu- 

 rated, I think, by Sir Kobert Stout and the Hon. John Bal- 

 lance. 



The profound theorists who prosper under the present con- 

 dition of finance may ask, How is the State to discover what is 

 an adequate emission of State paper? These querists will 

 desire elaborate calculations and bewildering columns of figures. 

 These are often the receptacles of dust that they ever have at 

 hand to blind the eyes of the public. But is not this the sec- 

 tion for statistics ? Not long ago a banker before a meeting in 

 Melbourne, at the Bankers' Institute of Australasia, broadly 

 asserted that banks' elaborate figures were not to be trusted ; 

 while long before that an English financier had stated that 

 public opinion has been proved by results to be more reliable 

 than the arguments of experts trained to think in particular 

 grooves. Of this the operation of Sir Eobert Peel's Act of 1844 

 may be cited as an instance. Living in London till 1848, I 

 heard it popularly said that this Act " was calculated to make 

 rich men richer and the poor poorer." There are few that will 

 now deny this viev.' of the case. 



I submit a plan to illustrate how the proposed new system 

 of a State bank of issue may be tested. Let an extensive 

 plain which it is desired to irrigate be thought of. The ques- 

 tion arises. How many millions of gallons will it take to cover 

 the plain a foot deep in the shallowest place ? The n^atlie- 

 maticians have measured its superficial area, and calculated 

 the inequalities of its surface ; they have allowed for the sup- 

 posed differences of the soil in respect to soakage ; but, after all, 

 the only exact test of quantity of water required is to open the 

 sluices from the reservoir and let the meter through which the 

 water passes register the quantity till the desired level is at- 

 tained. So let the Government cautiously ascertain what 

 volume of currency will meet the expanding requirements of 

 the country by carefully recording the issues and checking 

 the results upon the business and productive energy of the 



