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Daily Southern Cross, Volume XII, Issue 836, 3 July 1855, Page 3

THE SOUTHED CROSS. Ttjfrdvy, July 3. 1855.

LUCEO NON URO. "If I have been e\tin°;uisUpd ) jet there rise A thousand beacon* from the spark I bore

In our last appeared a letter, signed ' Q/ wit}, certain extracts taken from the letter of the Auckland correspondent of the 'Melbourne Argus/ containing some very pungent remarks on the state of our political parties —our land regulations and other mittira These appear to have «>iven great offence in certain quarters, and t-< have called fovth quite a storm of ahuse, from our contemporary, Editorially, as well as by correspondence. /The Editor's obseivations ari not worth notice, but there is a paisage in the letter of his " Northern Elector " of too much importance to be overlo'ked, inducing a belief, .a.s it unfairly does, in the exigence here of n state of commercial distress, the restriction of Bank discounts, and " tightness in the nionev maiket," with criperf and panics about to super vene, which, if not contradicted, nviy b< believed by parties at a distance, to the injury of the Piovince. The " Northern Elector" introduces his d^covery very covertly, in the shape of a question to the Editor of the ' New Zealnnder,' by asking, ' whether such letters as those of the Auckland correspondent of Vie ' Melbourne Argu?-,' are matters of triumph to an Auckland journalist, for the simple reason that they minister to the miserable vanity of Mr. Superintendent Brown, at the grievous cost of the Auckland Province ? Again he asks,—" Have not those, and acts like these, had an immediate tendency to CONTRACTING THE BaNK DISCOUNTS, AND CREATING a tightness in the money nnrket? O r impairing confidence rather than of promoting the public prosperity ? •' Such a state of forced depression may, no doubt, be fraught with benefit to the few, but can it fail to be productive of wrong to the many ? Is it not by such means that crises and panics arise ? Now this is certainly a discovery. We have often heard of commercial depression with " tightness in the money market," crisis and panics arising from over-trading and sppculating beyond the means of the individuals, and the wants and necessities of the community ; but we never before heard of such serious consequences arising from the letters of a newspaper correspondent. We can easily suppose that there will he few inclined to believe in suoh a very unlikely cause; but, as there may be many who, while rejecting the reason, may believe in the existence of the pretended facts, we th'nk it nces^ary to sate that these are equally fabulous. A " Northern Elector" would give people at a distance to believe, from his representation of the -Bank contracting its discounts, " tightness in the money market," and. " crisis and pauics," that Aucklaud was really in a state of great commercial distress and that a sort of general bankruptcy was impending; while the fact is notorious that trado was never in a more round and healthy state, nor con mercial prosperity bas d upon a more substantial foundation than it is at this moment. A " Northern Elector" ia wrong in every one of his statements. There is no contraction of Bank discounts;— no "tightness in the money market" for legitimate transactions; — no crisis ; — no panic. On the contrary, the bank, we "believe, never, at any other period, did so much business, or ao much extended its accommodation as it does at present. It may be quite true that a small section of would-be great men— a few laud jobbers, who by speculating beyond their means, and by borrowing and borrowing until their credit has become exhausted, may find some " tightness" in their money market; tut, it is quite untrue either that this •' tightness'- ha 3 been caused by the letter of the correspondent of the ' Melbourne Argus,' or that such a description, is generally applicable jto the place ; and there does not exist the smallest ground (for insinuating the existence or ,prospect of a commercial crisis or panic. . A Northern Elector's " tightuess in the money market,'! means in all probability nothing more than a tightness in his own poet el; but this is no reason why he should insinuate either, that people generally are in. the same dilemma, or that there is not abundance of money for every legitimate transaction t - To whatever extent individual tightness in the money market extends, a "Northern Elector"

may rest assured it has been in no way caused .»y the letter of the corvpspnndent of the ' Mel* bourne Argus.' It is to be traced to land speculation aloue, and it is not difficult to see how this arises, wh?n we congidtr that there has l >een sold, within the last year, jomothing approaching, we believe, to i.100,0 0 worth of land; while more than two thirds c: it. *re wholly waste and unproductive; not only yielding — nothing, but the purchasers, in tnajiy instances, are paying fornt at the rate of 10, 15, and even 20 per ceut interest for the loan of the pui chase money. This, and this alone causes the " tightness in the money market," and, in other words, has exhausted the means and credit of many of the purchasers; but the commercial prosperity of the place, however, is not affected; it never st»od higher or better than it does at present.