Page:Our New Zealand Cousins.djvu/163

 "Was it the banks?"

"No, he didn't know much about banks, but he believed they was pretty liberal, too."

"Was it employers?"

"Well, no. They were just as bad off as any one else."

"Would he like to go back to the old country?"

"No fear," very energetically. "Times was bad, no doubt; but, Lor' bless ye, they wasn't anything like as bad as they was at home."

And so, boiled down, it all came to this—Times were bad. That must be true, because everybody said so. But how bad were they? Men had fair wages, comfortable homes, were well clad, well fed, could afford tobacco, and other little luxuries, and yet—and yet, they were not happy.

The fact is, as it seems to me, just about this. People were too extravagant while the good times lasted. Fat contracts and big public works cannot last for ever. Even big reckless loans must have an end. The period for payment of interest comes round with unerring regularity. The time must come when steady industry must apply itself to reproductive works. Lands must be tilled, and ploughing is not so showy as tunnelling and bridge-building. Grasses and cereals must be sown, but returns are slower than from big contracts. "While the dollars roll in let us spend them. Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof." Such seems to me to be the general philosophy of these recurring hard times. When wages are high and work plentiful, the fat kine are slaughtered and eaten