STATE OF AUCKLAND.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXIII, Issue 3192, 9 October 1867, Page 4

STATE OF AUCKLAND.

To th» Editor of thi Daily 'Southern Cross. Sib, — The leading article in your issue of Saturday last is suggestive: — "Already the community is ground down by taxation ; and the downfall of provincial institutions only precedes the collapse of the colony by a few years, unless the present system be changed." This is an 'unpalatable text for a political and social homily, but daily experience confirms its truth. Each day sees this province a little worse off, the times get a little harder, a state of stagnation has been succeeded by one of retrogression, and people ask anxiously where it is to end. One thing seems inevitable — and that is, general repudiation. The bulk of the small traders have either bolted, compounded, or been whitewashed ; and the larger ones, unable longer to bear the draw upon them, are giving way. The province, as a community, is deeply involved ; and suspension appears to be only a question of a little time. In fact, we are a bankrupt people, however disagreeable, the admission. j bolvency appears the exception rather than the i rule ; and to all appearance, this state of things can only work its own cure. lam led to this conclusion from a review of the several causes which have brought this disastrous state of things about. First, the commercial machinery of the place is far in advance of its requirements. Even now we have merchants, bankers, and traders enough to supply a population five times as numerous as ours. Secondly, there are too many lawyers. Speaking from memory, the names of thirty-three occur to my mmd — thirty-three vultures on the one little battlefield ! They have the community bound down securely by the strong cords of mortgages, bills of sale, usurious loans, &c, * while they placidly watch its dispirited throes. If instances are wanting of their needy greed, they may be foundin a recent insolvency case, where a petitioning creditor was put to ruinous expense and delay, purely with a view to prolong a caie every stage of which was attended with heavy costs. And more notably in the case of McQuarrie v. the Bank of Auckland. There is scarcely a mercantile man in the town but regrets to see a poor man so obviously buffetted on a mere legal quibble. It was said of old, " He that oppresseth the poor to increase his riches * * * shall surely come to want." If that book be still true, and we believe it is, and applicable to all times, even the lawyers may yet reap the legitimate harvest of their present seed-time. The last cause which occurs to my mind is the large nondescript population resident here — half-pay officers, men of genteel occupations, decayed tradesmen, and others who, being unable to dig, and ashamed to beg, must be provided for in some way. The former are easily arranged. Accustomed in the morning of life to obey orders implicitly, they are specially adapted for certain political stations, where they can display an amount of respectability truly gratifying, without being troubled with a political will of their own. With the other class the case is more difficult, and hence the complicated and inefficient array of Government officers inNew Zealand. The sons of these good people are growing up; they look with supercilious contempt on work and working men ; and so they must be provided for — "either as embryo lawyers, or in Government

" billets," or something else " respectable." The healthful pursuits of country life are neglected, tb swell an already overburdened town. Times are not at their worst, and if we want to see the dawn of prosperity once more we must try to utilise and possess, in the real sense of the word, the beautiful country in which Providence has placed us. — Yours, &c, B.H.M. Auokland, October 7, 1867.