A Relapse Into Barbarism."

When the masses of the people are better informed they will remember that all the business of the world is transacted by one kind of barter or another. There is page 11 not a politician here to-day, whether a protectionist or a freetrader, who does not hinge his arguments on the relative proportions of the exports and imports of this colony of New Zealand; and what is that but casting his language in the time-honored mould of barter? Then when does barter become inconvenient? First, in dealing with comparatively insignificant quantities of a commodity, on account of the difficulty of dividing and moving such small quantities over considerable distances; and, secondly, because the exchange of goods in kind does not admit of their being so easily sweated by their distributors as by the intervention of the token—money. Silver and silver certificates have been referred to.