PRESIDENTIAL ADDEESS— SECTION F. 337 



country. It may be asked how it is that, of the three systems 

 of money that have obtained during the historical period — 

 viz., the 'ponderata, the moneta, and the nuvicrata, or the 

 weighed, the minted, and the numbered — at the present 

 period the nations of the world have harked back to the 

 system of Juno moneta, the minted, with all its vagaries of 

 haphazard. My reply is, Chiefly because, as the late Mr. 

 Walter Bagehot remarked, "those who best know many of the 

 facts of banking will not tell them or hint at them." I pre- 

 sume he meant they were trade secrets. Science now dis- 

 claims these tricks of the dark ages. In the history of the 

 world it is recorded that human power had too often exulted 

 over those lying at its mercy. The victors left off eating their 

 captives when they found it was to their advantage to employ 

 or sell them as slaves. Under a partially-enlightened national 

 conscience, those in political or social power took advantage of 

 the ignorance of those less informed than themselves, and do 

 up to this hour propose that capital should have the balance 

 of might on its side, and the food of the world within its grasp 

 with which to enforce its power. Thus, to-day, no matter at 

 what expense in labour any property real or personal has been 

 brought together, if merely one-half of its cost has been 

 pledged for money the mortgagee takes the whole of it and 

 leaves the unfortunate borrower penniless. So glaring is this 

 hardship that even the Lmv Times awhile ago revolted against 

 its infliction, and said, "The notion of sanctity of contract is 

 outside the question, when the enforcement of the contract is 

 practically impossible, or only attainable at vastly exceptional 

 cost." The heaviest part of the indictment is that by tamper- 

 ing with the currency of the country the bankers bring about 

 the very catastrophes that place the borrower at the mercy of 

 the lender. It was given as a jeu d'esprit, in an American 

 paper, that Johnny was pondering over his copy-book sentence, 

 "Honesty is the best policy," and submitted to his money- 

 lending father whether it was so. "Yes, sonny," the senior 

 affectionately replied; "if people had not been honest, how 

 should I have got on as I have done ? " The contention of the 

 near future is between the reign of utter dishonesty in finance, 

 disguised though it may be as an angel of mercy, and of com- 

 mon fair-play. 



In my opinion the establishment of a State bank of issue 

 somewhat upon the lines of the Bill carried in the Lower 

 House of New Zealand by the late Mr. Macandrew is the 

 thing to be done. Then, moneta, the minted money of the 

 usurer, will give place to the counted volume of the numerata 

 under the regulated control as to its emission by the Govern- 

 ment of the people who have to get their living under its 

 potent influence. But, this being so, how is it that the vast 

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