AUCKLAND MARKETS.

Auckland Examiner, Volume IV, Issue 277, 30 June 1860, Page 2

AUCKLAND MARKETS.

June 29. Wholesale.— Fine Hour, 27 ; seconds, £2O •sharps, £9 per ton ; bran, Is. 3d. ; maize (cracked or whole), 4s. Gd. ; wheat, nomimal. Retail.— Fine flour, 29s,'per 100 lbs.; seconds 225. ; sharps, 12s. ; bran, Is. 6d pci; bushel ; maize (cracked or wholes ss. Biscuits. —Cabin, 355. per 100 lbs.; bread, per 21b. loaf, 5d to Gd. Butchers’ Meat.— Beef, per lb., 6d to 7d . Mutton. 7d to 8d; pork, Gd to 7d. Bread, per 2 lb. loaf, 7d. Building Materials. —Boards and Scantling pe; IUO feet, 1 2s to 145.; Boards, tongued and •u\ ovud, 18s.; Shingles, 14s. per 1000; Palings,'l4s ; Post s & Rails, £3 to £3 ss. per 100 ; Bricks, £3 5s to £3 10s. per 1000; Lime, is. Bd. to 2s. per bush. Potatoes, 7s Gd to 8s per 1001 b. AUCTION SALES. Mr. S. Jones sells to-day, at 10—Beel and Pork, Butter, Biscuit, Furniture, &c. V'. 'sden and Co., to-day at 11 —-Beef, pota’ - tiour, furniture, books, phaeton, &c. SB; .3 to eroirroponßfnw. I. r •. : — asks is it really true that llieprov, cial'goecrnmenl have beeityriven to such st Il's co lie. compelled to give MessrsC\ ey a- himpsou securities, bearing 10 i ■ cent it iciest, to the amount of eC1,840 x l ' ; »;■ whether it.is only a ruse jn Casey and Simpson offering them for sale? He Can assure Inquirer that it is no ruse on part of Casey and Simpson. Il is

stern reality, caused by the way in which the public have allowed Cheap John to mismanage their affairs. We predicted that some such state of things would inevitably ensue when we showed Cheap John’s penchant for bottom-upwards legislation. But then few believed and fewer heeded the “bastely paper,” as Gaoler McElwain quaintly called it. Cheap John was then doted upon by gulled electors. Time wore on. Electors began to see that Cheap John did not do all that he and his red hot admirers had promised. Dissatisfaction then commenced. Electors began to see that the resources of the country were being drained and were being saziandered upon the wharf and harbor, to make Jack Cadeite property more valuable. Country settlers complained of their roads being impassable, and that the Government neglected either to make new, or repair the old ones. . Country settlers, after reiterated attempts to get from Cheap John some portion of the money which he. ivas squand ering on the wharf and Custom-house Street, were through dire necessity compelled to tax themselves and form their oxon roads. They felt this neglect and deaf ear which was turned to them to be the “ unkindest cut of all,” inasmuch as Cheap John when a candidate for the office which he now holds, (and has disgraced,) slated in his address io the electors that he “held it to be the duty of a Superintendent to visit every district, and inform himself personally of its wants.” He succeeded so far in imposing on the credulity of a sufficient number of men to get himself elected, and what has he done for them ? Nothing. He made a show of attention to their wants al first. He issued contracts for the various roads and bridges in the Southern Division, metal was carted on to the Great South Road, so that as soon as the road

was formed it would be spread where, Members King and Lynch said in session just closed, “it has remained for the last eighteen months, and the road was impassable.” After the contractors had been working a short time, and were proceeding with the execution of their contracts with

great vigor, their, operations were restricted by our model Superintendent, who thought that the work of opening up the country by making roads for country settlers was proceeding too fast. Some were stopped altogether. One contractor was told that “he must not employ more than two carts-; to cart away the clay." The works tin tfie country were thus gradually stopped, and all this before any cry about financial embarrasment was raised- They had then plenty of money in their chest, the refund of zC45,000 having greased the

wheels of the provincial government coach. Country settlers were amazed on coming into town, to see that the works ivere not stopped on the wharf, and to read Mrs. Slipslop’s frothy effusions about “ thepile driver,” and how well it was doing its work,

and what rapid progress the wharf was 'making towards being completed. Country settlers were indignant at their roads being stopped, so that T and additions might be made to the Queen-street Wharf. Budas the Southern Division settlers were treated, Northern Division settlers were treated worse. From Cheap and Dr. Jonah great things ivere expected. The settlers wanted some means of communication with the city. A road is being cut for them, at enormous expence, called the Great North Road, which we doubt will ever be completed, and if completed it will lead io that place called no-where. For Northern Division the P. G. have absolutely done nothing. They have not so much as surveyed a road for them. When Captain Cooper asked for money to open some road in that division, the executive told him that the settlers should lax themselves. Captain Cooper replied—How can we lax ourselves to make roads when the government won't stirve.y them? and the Great North Road is of no use to the settlers, except to those who are close to town. What becomes of Mrs. Slipslop's vaunt, when fin A. O’Neill's party surveying the site for it she confidently asserted that “ in a fortnight horse and gig might be driven to. Wangarei!” Thousands have been spent on this road, and it has been in progress now upwards of two years, and we have not heard that any horse and gig has been driven over it to Wangarei. Recklessness has been the leading characteristic of the present provincial government. They have sacrificed the interests of the country settlers that their own private ends might be better accomplished. They have violated the most sacred trusts to avert the continual dunning of the Oriental Bank. They have tried to tamper with and sell the harbor endowments for “gas and gammon.” They have tried to raise the wind by debentui es, but no one would trust them. Then came their attempt to make their-debts negotiable by allowing them to bear interest at 10 per cent. They have advertized for £615,000 on the security of the harbor endowments. But it is by no means certain that capitalists are better inclined to lend Cheap John money now than they were six months ago.

New 'Comer.—-7Ae forty acre f arm speculation has been one system of puff, puff, puffing from first to last. Mrs. Slipslop has taken the lead as wholesale puffer. She has been backed up in this bsincss at every arrival of immigrants by a number of her toady correspondents, who took their cue from Slipslop, and therefore shaped their communications to keep up the illusio'n. The hbme agents-continued puffing till letters after letters arrived from dupes here, who had seen for themselves, an-d experienced what they wrote. Letters which have been sent from Auckland are appearing from time to time in the English papers,exposing the great cheat. The bubble has now burst—the illusion can no longer be kept up. Thousands after thousands of the public money went to pay a large staff of surveyors to have land in readiness for forty-acre men. IVhen the members of the government were asked why such an

expensive survey staff was kept up, which took such a large portion of the provincial funds? they replied that it was necessary; that the money was well expended; that they were preparing the land, for thousands of forty-acre men to locate upon ; and that the government would soon receive the money back again which had been so expended from an increased revenue which would arise from a greatly increased consumption. This, however, has turned out

another financial miscalculation. The forty acre men have come. Some have looked at the land merely, audnow they are leaving faster thaw they arrived. Every ship that leqves us tells a tale. The Breadalbaue goes away full every trip for Sydney. The white Swan has taken disappointed crowds to Napier. Red Jacket,. Prince Alfred, Phcenix, and Lord IFbrsley take large numbers each of forty acre dupes. The most grievous part of the delusion logs in the Agents declaring that all would find employment; that all ivere required; and that all would.be certain to earn high wages if they once landed in Auckland. Slipslop has of late changed her tactics in the puffing line: For a. length of time she described wicked people as going onboard to discourage the new arrivals. All kinds of charges were brought against imaginary individuals who, she said, wanted to make the new arrivals discontented. This game becoming stale, and not taking any longer, it was considered necessary to resort to some other dodge—such as getting short letters written from here and there a forty acre man who has gone on his land—showing how well he was doing—the bright prospect he had before him, and how well satisfied he was ivith his lot. But these were so few and far between as to f orbid the hope of a long life to this plan. Carleton, Busby, May, Oaoper, King, and other members of Council who interested themselves in exposing the delusive system carried on by the government and their agents, may now rest satisfied. Neither the government nor their agents, nor Slipslop and her toady correspondents, nor yet all their labors put together, can counteract the telling effect that will be produced on the minds of the people in England when they read theletters which a number of disappointed forty acre men—now passengers home againper Phcenix—declare they will write and publish so soon as they land again on old English soil. It would be well, if the system is working prosperously—as Slipslop and her toadies would make it appear —if these scribblers would get up a table showing the name of every ship that has brought out forty acre men—the number of passengers in each ship, the number that have left again for Napier, Sydney, the other Provinces, Melbourne, and England Above all we should be told how many out of every list of passengers have become practical settlers on the land. This test would expose the delusion, and confound Mrs. Slipslop. If every ship’s passengers were counted up from first to last the average of those forty acre men who have become practical workers on the land under the Land Order system will not amount to 5 per cent. Indeed, this will be over the mark. We challenge contradiction Ninety jive ou.t of every hundred of them have not made a. practical use of the Land Order. The forcing plan has not succeeded. Peo pie used to every other occupation excep farming cannot be transplanted into the bush and converted into farmers, without capital, so readily as Mrs.. Slipslop imagined. The forty acre system was supposed to be at one lime the only leg the presentgovernment had to stand upon. Th<s is gone —fairly gone. Our population has been but lit'le increased. The government speculation, financially speaking, is a failure, and hundreds are now leaving the Province to proclaim to the world how egregiously they have been disappointed.