Newfoundland in 1897 - Rumbolt

ENGLAND'S OLDEST COLONY. 143
nature. The fisheries were above an average, and
industrial enterprise, in many directions, was active.
Credit had been curtailed and business more largely
conducted on a cash basis. The revenue still con-
tinued to advance, and the Government were able to
show a surplus of $206,493 over expenditure.
In point of fact, the effect of the commercial crash
of 1894 has been to reform abuses which had crept into
the commercial system, and to place business on a
sounder basis than before. The main cause of that
financial disaster had been the dangerous and vicious
system of banking on which for years the business of
the country had been conducted. These banks had
furnished undue facilities of obtaining credit in some
cases to an enormous extent and this led to an infla-
tion of trade. Their capital was thus swallowed up.
In such a condition of affairs a slight matter would
precipitate a crisis, which at length arrived. All this
is ended. The improved banking methods introduced
by the Canadian banks has told favourably, and placed
monetary affairs on a sounder basis than before ; and
while all due facilities are furnished by these banks
for a legitimate business, all wild and speculative
schemes are steadily discouraged.
Another still more important reform has been intro-
duced. The supplying, or truck system, on which the
fisheries have been carried on, has received its death-
blow. It was the cause of evils innumerable; and
though it will not altogether disappear for some time,
it has been greatly curtailed. The " crash " has been far
from an unmixed evil. A country that has so quickly
recovered from its effects must have a future before it.