the day he stops work, nor can he be received back again into the same gang without the consent of all concerned. The men are paid by the piece, but all are paid an equal amount whether all can do the same work or not. The system has worked exceedingly well. All the profits that used to go to the contractor now go to the men, because the government pay the same price as they would have to pay contractors. The result has been that the men have been able to earn on an average from one to two shillings per day more than they would have been paid by a contractor. In fact the contractor's profit has gone into the pockets of the men, and with no injury to the government, for the work has not cost the government one penny more than it would have under the ordinary contracting system.

Many other experiments have been made in New Zealand, but I have selected the foregoing to illustrate how government functions have been extended. To carry them out no taxation on the people has been necessary. The government security, no doubt, has been the main thing that has made them a success. It is not fitting to dwell on other things that New Zealand has accomplished. I may only say that year by year our exports are increasing, and we have shown that we can carry on our government without further aid from the London money lender. No doubt we are heavily indebted. Our net public debt amounts to 37,677,6197. Part of this immense sum was spent on war, part on railways, part on immigration, and part on the purchase of the land from the Maories—for the colony has recognised the title of the aborigines-but as against the great debt we have large landed estates, railways, water races, roads, lighthouses, and all the many requisites modern civilization demands. So far, our State has been free from corruption of any kind, and the spending of such large sums has, no doubt, developed our resources to a large extent. Without railways we could not have exported such quantities of wheat and other products. Our exports last year amounted to the large sum of 9,566,397., a not inconsiderable amount for a population of 650,000 men, women, and children. Our internal trade has largely developed. Our total products amount to at least 24,000,000l. I do not intend, however, to speak of New Zealand's general progress. Our record is not a bad one considering we have only just celebrated our jubilee. No doubt our climate counts for much. We have not the severe winters of England, far less the months of snow and frost experienced in Canada and the Northern United States, nor do we experience their summer heat, and we have neither the droughts of Australia nor its floods. It is fairly I think open to question if private enterprise, unaided by the State, could have accomplished in fifty years

what has been done through State action, and if our taxation must necessarily be large to pay our interest, yet our resources are equally extensive. There is no tendency to create millionnaires such as are common in America, but I do not know if this will be a loss to our people, I rather think it will be a gain. There are other experiments we are bent on making, as, for example, to solve the difficult problem of equality of sacrifice in taxation, and to limit the area of holdings of land; but these hardly bear on the questions I have been discussing. I have mentioned what we have done, and I have also stated that the indirect results cannot yet be estimated. So far we seem an enterprising and a thriving people. Competition in business is as active as in America. We are law abiding, and there is certainly growing up amongst us a reverence for the government and obedience to law that do not exist in many democracies. The growth of the State conscience is no doubt always slow, but it has begun to develop here, and the fact that the State is doing so much for the people may tend to make this growth more vigorous and stable.

The ADDRESS of the PRESIDENT of the ECONOMIC SCIENCE and STATISTICS SECTION of the BRITISH ASSOCIATION, held at EDINBURGH, 1892.

By the HON. SIR CHARLES W. FREMANTLE, K.C.B.

I SUPPOSE that few Presidents of any Section of this Association begin the preparation of their addresses without taking at least a mental retrospect of the work of their predecessors. I have turned with great interest to the address delivered by the late Lord Neaves, who occupied this chair in 1871, when the Association last met in Edinburgh. Lord Neaves rightly held that the subject of statistics is ancillary to the main subject of the Section, Economic Science, and his immediate predecessor, the lamented Professor Stanley Jevons, pointed out at Liverpool in 1870 that even "the name "statistics' in its true meaning denotes all knowledge relating to "the condition of the State or people." I propose to devote the main portion of my Address to a subject to which I have devoted much attention, and which is intimately connected with the welfare of an important section of our people, and I shall hope to point out the means which may be taken to promote their welfare without leading them, as Lord Neaves expressed it in his concluding words, " to dispense with ordinary and necessary prudence." It is impossible to exaggerate the change which has taken place since the date of Lord Neaves' address in the ideas of the public as to its responsibilities in regard to what is called charity. While it recognises that much which was then held to be "charity" is nothing more than justice to the poorer classes, its sense of the dangers of pauperisation has been greatly intensified, and it justly regards many of the charitable methods which would then have been unhesitatingly advocated as not conducive to their best interests. I venture to claim a considerable part of the change which has taken place as due to the efforts of the Charity Organisation Society, which had then been recently founded, and of which I have the honour this year to be chairman. I claim that the Society has made men everywhere think, and think seriously, of the duty incumbent upon them not only of giving, but of giving with care and discrimination, and that it has enlisted in the service of their poorer brethren an army which, besides being always ready to be prudently generous, is in a thousand cases willing to ensure, by personal effort, that charitable help shall be

wisely and kindly dispensed. Such personal effort realises what was well described centuries ago in the Talmud as "the doing of "kindness," and is developing "a system founded not on rights "but on sympathy, dealing not in doles but in deeds of friendship "and of fellowship, and demanding a giving of oneself rather "than of one's stores." It has naturally followed that collateral subjects, such as the promotion of thrift and the better regulation of benevolent and benefit societies, have during the last twenty years received a greatly increased amount of enlightened attention. Before proceeding however to the main subject of my Address, let me briefly refer to two questions more directly connected with the special work to which the greater part of my official life has been devoted.

The first of these is the restoration of the gold coinage, a question which has for many years past exercised the minds of successive Chancellors of the Exchequer and has been a stumbling block to bankers and the commercial world. It had long been felt that the machinery provided by the law, as laid down in the old proclamations and embodied in the Coinage Act of 1870, was of necessity powerless to maintain the gold currency in an efficient condition. The law provided that "where any gold coin of the "realm is below the current weight... every person shall, by "himself or others, cut, break, or deface any such coin tendered to “him in payment, and the person tendering the same shall bear the "loss;" but as there was no penalty for the disregard of this cbligation, it became practically inoperative. Gold coins, however much below the least current weight, passed freely from hand to hand, and bankers received them from their customers and paid them away again. Only the Bank of England and a few other public departments obeyed the law, with the result that the principal sufferers were the banking establishments, who in the course of business pay large amounts of gold coin into the Bank of England, and were obliged to submit to the loss on all coins found to be light. The banks, in self-defence, naturally paid in as many fullweight coins as possible, and put the light again into circulation. Not more than 1,500,000l. of light coin, therefore, was annually withdrawn, and it was calculated that, at last, of the sovereigns in circulation as many as 46 per cent., and of the half sovereigns no fewer than 70 per cent., were below the least current weight. Bill was brought in in 1884 for the withdrawal of light coins by the State and for the substitution for the half sovereign of a tenshilling piece of the intrinsic value of 98., so that a fund might be provided to cover the expense of the operation and of the future maintenance of the currency in a proper condition; but this Bill was not proceeded with. Of the subsequent Bills introduced none

A

became law, until in 1889 an Act was passed withdrawing light gold coins of former reigns, and these coins were finally called in under a proclamation issued in November, 1890. The entire operation was effected at a cost of about 50,000l. It is curious to note that this is the first instance in which gold coin has been decried in this country, for the guinea and half guinea had never been declared uncurrent, and doctors and others might have contended that their fees were still represented by coins which were legal tender. The Act of 1889, with the subsequent proclamation, having served its purpose by clearing the circulation of all the older gold coinages, there only remained coins of the present reign to deal with. The Coinage Act of 1891 provides for the withdrawal of light gold coin by the State at its full nominal value, and will apply equally to coins which will hereafter become light as to those which have already fallen below the legal weight. No one can now or in the future suffer for tendering a light sovereign or half sovereign more than for making a payment with a worn half crown or shilling, and any Victorian gold coin tendered at the Bank of England, provided that it has not been defaced and that its weight has not been fraudulently reduced, is received and exchanged. For the present, coins must be sent in in parcels of 100l. It is unnecessary to dwell upon the advantage which these arrangements have conferred, and will confer, upon the public. In 1842-45, when the previous withdrawal of light gold took place, the coin was only paid for by weight at the Mint price of 31. 178. od. per ounce, and many were the misunderstandings and bitter the complaints to which the conditions of withdrawal gave rise. No inconvenience or alarm, on the other hand, is likely to attend the measures necessary under the Act of last year, which make it possible to effect the gradual withdrawal of the light coin without friction. To 1st July last the amounts withdrawn were: sovereigns 5,150,000l., and half sovereigns, 3,850,000l. It had been estimated that the average deficiency of weight in each sovereign would be 2.57d., and in each half sovereign 2.65d., and the actual deficiency found has been 2.65d. in the case of sovereigns and 2.93d. in the case of half sovereigns. After the first withdrawals have been effected it is probable that the deficiency will become less, as a certain amount of much worn coin had no doubt been accumulated in banks in anticipation of the passing of the Act. As far as the work has as yet proceeded, however, the cost of withdrawing 1,000,000l. in sovereigns has been found to be 11,0567., and of withdrawing 1,000,000l. in half sovereigns 24,4181. A sum of 400,000l. was set aside by the Act for the expenses of the withdrawal, which will be sufficient at this rate to meet the loss on 26,593,000l. Elaborate investigations were conducted by the

2 F

VOL. LV. PART III.