The Southern Cross. Saturday, May 20. FINANCIAL EMBARRASSMENTS.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume 1, Issue 5, 20 May 1843, Page 2

The Southern Cross. Saturday, May 20.

FINANCIAL EMBARRASSMENTS.

Luceo non Uro. " If I ha\e been extinguished, yet there rise A ihousuid b aeons from the spark I bore."

Mr. Shortland s Lox\n of £15,000 at 15 per cent. , We are at all tunes unwilling to interfere with any question which may have in itself a tendency to weaken the hands of the representatives of our Sovereign in this country, as far as the executive part of their duty is concerned: but late events imperatively demand that every person who has an interest in the credit of New Zealand should see that it sustains no injury even in this respect. It is true, too true, that we cannot help ourselves, that we have no actual control of the expenditure of the money raised from our industry. We are j taxed* like other British subjects, but unlike | every other British subjects our consent is neither obtained nor asked in this matter, and after being- taxed, our money is spent without our concurrence, and without the excercise of the slightest control on our part ; we are altogether an anomaly — a Colony of Englishmen without a single one of the privileged of British subjects, we are governed without a single representative ; worse than all, we are mocked with the name of being possessed of a Legislative Council, although it consists of only three Government nominees. Where then are the privileges which we ought to possess as Englishmen ? We look in vain for them — they do not exist — we have left them all behind us, with the exception of paying taxes — this alone remains to us. The feeling of our helplessness and of the cruel injustice of the Home Government has been strongly and bitterly impressed upon our mind of late, and for some time back, in consequence of the fearful mismanagement of the Revenue of the Colony, and the extraordinary expedients fallen upon by the Local Government to obtain the means of meeting the current expenses. We had on a late occasion the disagreeable task of narrating the unhappy effects of the policy of this Government towards the Natives, while recording the details of the horrid massacre at Manganui, as well as of the quarrels between the Government and the Natives at Wairoa. We have now to narrate for the information of the Secretary of State for the Colonies the history of a financial transaction between this Government and a Mr. Boyd of Sydney, and if in the former we had to speak of matters which claimed the sympathy and pity cf the humane towards the oppressed and deeply wronged Natives, we have now to speak of matters which must astonish the man of business, and we doubt not very much displease the Nobleman who presides over the genii who rule in Colonies. But while the man of business will bo astonished, and the Colonial Secretary offended at the tact displayed by Mr. Shortland in the management of the financial department of the svovernment. the colonists must, after all. considering the little experience he must necessarily have had in such matters, give Mr. Shortland some credit for the numerous shifts he has had recourse to -in this the most perplexing and intricate of the branches of civil government; for our own part, and considering that he had every thing in the art of governing to learn since he came amongst us, we are not at all surprised at the frequent dilemmas into which he has fallen, indeed, we are persuaded that he never thought when he took office, that such a thing could happen, as the revenue falling short of the current expenditure, until, upon a certain day, the Colonial Treasurer informed him that all the money raised from the sale of Auckland allotments, and other lands, was spent — that in short, theTreasury was empty ! This was an awkward predicament for a man to be placed in certainly, and a thing calculated to perplex a person knowing so little about such matters, as the officer administering the government. To a person well acquainted with the routine of business, it might appear a very simple matter to draw upon such a sure and good firm, as the Treasury of Great Britain.

Piter, commanded this gentlen4||bjiDl to forLard them. It is at all events a fSSt, that the debentures were withheld, although the money feas obtained from the Bank under the pre■jtence that they would be forwarded along with gthe drafts. ( | Such are the naked facts of this case, we forbear to give expression to the reflections Lhich naturally arise from the statement of ihem. We shall not dwell upon Mr. ShortSand's conduct in this transaction, neither shall Ire hazard any opinion as to the probable conlequences, as far as he is concerned, we know gtfat our own feelings would have been, as stall as what the consequences would be, were Sfire to act by the Bank in the way Mr. Short*rad has done, but we are not expected to -tuow any thing of his, or to speculate upon .the consequences, as far as he is concerned, •dre leave other people to do this : but one thing "we are certain of, that Mr. Shortland will, out i>f his own private funds, be required to defray L fee £150 expenses on the returned Bills ; &nd we think it is more than likely the Home government may charge him with the whole junount of the £15,000, or, at all events, with ihe 15 per cent interest paid for the same.^ i Looking upon the above transaction in a Inere business point of view, we must say, ffchat the arrangement with Mr. Boyd was not fbnly the most injudicious but the most injurious to the interests of this Colony that could be sintered into. The Colony is first of all brought Pluto debt to pay the expenses of Mr. Shorttand's Groveniment to the amount of £15,000, or which fifteen per cent, is to be paid, but j ;he most strangely unaccountable part of the i transaction is the handing over to Mr. Boyd, j ndependent of the drafts upon the Home C4o- ! rernment for these £15,000, an additional j mm- of £15,000 in the shape of Debentures on I he Revenues of the Colony. — Did it ever oc- ! ;ur to this Government that a man engaged in Ibusiness in New South Wales might fail even with all this assistance from Mr. Shortland ? IWhat should become of the £15,000 in such It case? — it would take rnanv flocks of sheep pn New South Wales, at a shilling a head, to | Day for the loss ! But supposing there was no I :isk as far as Mr. Boyd is concerned, and we I lout know that there is any, what a character |loes this transaction give to our Colony, and to kmr Government in particular ? Obliged to sell ipills upon the British Treasury at a discount abf 15 per cent., giving Debentures upon the fpolonial Revenue as security besides ! ! ! — iWas the British Government ever before at |uch a discount in any other part of the world? ! Vlr. Shortland at least will deserve to be reneinbered as the person under whose adminisration such an extraordinary event occurred. We admire Mr. Boy d's tact in the management jf this business. Our readers will please to keep pi view, that while he has received, and no lloubt made use of, the Government drafts for 1615,000, together with 15 per cent, for the lame, that he still holds the whole of the Inoney ; he has as yet paid nothing to Mr. Khortland excepting the £2,000, for which he lliould have by contract received Debentures jj|n this Colony. The value of this money can|piot in reality be less than 10 per cent to Mr. fjpoyd at such a time as this, so that this Government actually arranges to pay 25 per cent, lor the mere pleasure of depositing money with m private individual ; they must surely have fpeeii afraid that the touch of it would, burn Ipieir fingers before they could get rid of it on guch terms. Had they at the time hadanyideaof Sheir future necessities, they surely would have Ifisked the experiment of trying to keep the pnoney themselves. % If any thing could prove the absurdity of attempting to rule a Colony by means of a Jpoverninent irresponsible to the people, this amentable experiment at financing must be in tself sufficient to do so We need scarcely issert that such a transaction as this could not lave occurred, had we a Legislative Council ;o controul the acts of the Government. We iherefore hope that the Home Government rill on this very account perceive the absolute lecessity of granting the prayer of the Petiion, which has been some time ago forwarded o Her Majesty on this subject, and that we lay soon expect to have the right and the ower of electing our own representatives, who tII bo accountable to us for the manner in r hicli the Revenue arising from our industry hall be expended.

Seriously speaking, Mr. Shortlands situmioi was any thing but pleasant ; he had informee his superior that upwards of £25,000 had beei received on account of land sales, for the pas year, and that a much greater sum might \y relied upon as the produce of the next. Tb former sum was all spent, and the latter wa a false calculation. Fear and shame, howevet were finally, and fully overcome, and it wa determined to draw upon England. — The ol vious plan of negociating the drafts throug.' the Local Bank, was deemed inexpedieui perhaps because it was thought better to girt the benefit arising from such a transaction fe one of the Sydney banks. At all events, ft. government would neither condescend to se! the drafts themselves, in such sums as tb public required, (say, from £100 upwards which might have readily been done upon t\ spot, noi^ would they permit the local Bail to do so ; but sent them to an agent i Sydney. From their unhappy ignorance c business however, this plan entirely failei Because the agent was required ' by them t sell only, at a certain premium, which migl have easily been foreseen he could not aceoa plish, and because the drafts themselves wer drawn for sums so large, as to render thei even on this very account unsaleable. 0, account of this, and a variety of other bliu ders, the credit of this government was litei ally, and so completely destroyed in Sydnej that their drafts could not eventually be diposed of on any terms. In this emergency, the Collector of Customs the oldest and the most experienced of ti officers of government, was forthwith dcs patched to Sydney, for the purpose of obtain ing money in any possible manner. This gentleman entered into preliminar arrangements with Mr. Boyd, the manager o the Royal Bank of Australasia ; and the cok tract was ratified by Mr. Shortland, the office administering the government, on the s retur of Mr. Cooper to this colony. The terms t this extraordinary contract being, that M Boyd should negociate their drafts upon tli Home Government, at the unheard of di< count of 15 per cent. Stipulating at the sam time, in addition to the payment of this dicount, that he should receive for every sm paid by him, debentures upon the revenue of this colony to an equal amount. So^tb.s this government, in order to receive £15,00 at 15 per cent interest, actually agreed 1 i make over to Mr. Boyd a sum of £30,000, fc ! which amount this colony becomes indebted t i the Home Government. The impolicy of anticipating the revenue of a colony by the issuo of debentures is oh vious, and lias boon severely reprehended i: ■ other cases by the Secretary for the Colonie; In this case, besides being highly impolitic, i was also illegal, inasmuch as it was neve sanctioned or approved of by the Legislate Council, who alone could be presumed to hay the risrht of adopting such an extreme measure So well did Mr. Shortland himself, seem i have been aware of the illegality of this con tract, that, although the debentures had bee executed, he nevertheless failed, when drawin for the first sum of £2,000, to forward t Mr. Boyd the stipulated debentures, perlia* he was trying an experiment ; and so fi succeeded, Mr. Boyd, paying the £2,00" but, intimating at the same time, that he ha done so for the honor of the local govern ment, though in future, he unequivocally gay Mr. Shortland to understand, that not a shil ling should be advanced without the stipulate debentures. The £2,000 being very soon cj pended, and necessity requiring that mor | money should be advanced, the governmer now applied to the local Bank, with the vie' of negociating through it, drafts to the amoui lof £3,000 upon Mr. Boyd. But, the Dim tors of the Bank, before entertaining such proposal, required, as a preliminary step,_t bo put in possession of all the facts regardin the arrangements made with Mr. Boyd ; an' with this view, two of their number were d puted to wait upon Mr. Shortland, who sati: fied them that the terms of the contract wci fully complied with, and in particular, tto * debentures, equal to the amount to be dram were duly executed, and would be forwards t to Sydney, along with drafts. On tl faith of this assurance, the Bank discountc Mr. Shortlands drafts on Mr. Boyd, to tli full amount of (£3,000). To the great sus prise of the Bank Directors, however, the fir: opportunity from Sydney conveyed to the! the astounding intelligence of the dishonor of Mr. Shortlands drafts, because of the es traordinary fact that the debentures had ntf according to promise and contract, been fos warded by Mr. Shortland to Mr. Boyd. Tit versions of the history of the debentures at now current ; but we cannot say which is tl correct ono. The first is, that Mr. Shortlan forwarded the debentures to Sydney, accordj to the arrangement made with the BanMj rectors, but, after so doing, that he despatch , the government pinnace to the Bay of IslanC to forward by the same vessel, a letter counte manding the order to deliver them to M Boyd. The second version is, that after ti debentures had been executed, and left wi the Colonial Treasurer to be forwarded ' Sydney, Mr. Shortland, by his own writ*