Savings Bank Deposits, 1885.

This fact, however, may have led to our being reproached by certain English capitalists for having built railways in the hope that people would come here to use them, rather than for the purpose of supplying the wants, of an existing population.

As further evidence of the soundness of New Zealand's position, the following figures indicate that the volume of our foreign trade, unlike that of other exporting countries, has steadily increased in spite of the heavy fall in prices.

The visible improvement in the general industrial situation in America, and the signs of a revival of trade in Great Britain, lead to the hope that we shall before long see an expansion both in the volume and value of our trade If we have been able to hold our own so well in the struggle for material advancement, or even make a little headway during a time of commercial quietude, it is not unnatural to expect that we shall move onwards more rapidly when the turn of the tide sets in.

Whilst considering cur position I cannot refrain from a passing reference to the value of our timber industry. It is often alleged that our forests are being so fast depleted that in the immediate future the supply will be imperilled. But the experience of the world scarcely supports this view, as, according to estimates that have been made, the whole area annually felled is only nineteen millions of acres and may be increased to forty millions before reaching the annual average increase in the growth of forest trees in exporting countries. Hence, as the area of forest trees in New Zealand in proportion to that which is annually felled is probably equal to the area in the majority of most timber-exporting countries, we are entitled to infer that, with no material increase on our present consumption, we need not be much alarmed about impairing our capital in trees.

In concluding the consideration of our present position, it is a consolation to feel that, whatever may be said about the condition of the commercial and agricultural industries, New Zealand has at least been able to maintain the great bulk of its industrial classes in a higher degree of comfort than any other country. There can be little doubt that the increased consideration which of late years has been given throughout the civilised world to the study of the social sciences, has had the effect of reducing the percentage of abject poverty in it At the same time we must admit that so far we have been unable to remove entirely this blot upon modern civilisation. In New Zealand, as elsewhere, a certain amount of destitution, more or less severe, appears inevitable, but any impartial observer who has travelled must come to the conclusion that the percentage is very much less in this country than in any other, and that as a matter of fact gaunt hunger is practically unknown. We hear much about the unemployed, and doubtless, there may be a few who from time to time have to suffer through want of work, to say nothing of those who are unable to obtain what they consider remunerative employment, but the heart-breaking misery that may be seen in any of the larger cities in Europe or America and in a less degree in Australia does not exist in New Zealand. Indeed it has been well said that New Zealand is the working man's paradise, and in no other country are the poorer classes as a whole so well fed or so well clothed as they are here. It can be readily shown that per head of our population we consume far more meat, more bread, more sugar, more tea, more coffee, and more of all the everyday articles of food than any other known country, and also that the ratio of income per capita is greater, so that, whatever our burdens may be, the masses are not the sufferers therefrom. The fact is, that the present generation are not so well satisfied with their lotas their forefathers. There is now a days a greater tendency than formerly to exaggerate trouble. At any rate there are better opportunities for airing grievances, real or imaginary, and it is probably this facility for making complaints that causes us to imagine that our ills are very much greater than they really are.