THE NELSON EXAMINER. Nelson, August 16, 1845.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 180, 16 August 1845, Page 94

THE NELSON EXAMINER. Nelson, August 16, 1845.

jounuli become more necettfry v men becojne qiore equal and indWidnalUm more £ojbe feared. It would be to underrate their importance to.iupjboae ,tha* they terte only to secure liberty : they maintain civilization. ' Ds TocacßViLLi. Of Democracy in America, vol. iv., p. 303.

, We beg to call attention to a letter in another column, on the subject of the paper ""rorreficy *wnicn"""is° threatening to" inundate ;tiie colony! The experience of everyone who has had an opportunity of witnessing the effect, of , an issue of ahm-plasters elsewhere will folly corroborate our correspondent's statements, and we hope that the ■ community of Nelson, having been warned '. in time,' will escape the evils of such a pis . alter. " - , • - If we were to choose between an issue of Government debentures and an issue of, 'private ones by merchants and other individuals, we should certainly prefer the latter. In the case of the former the scraps of paper put in circulation represent no pf operty to which the holder can resort, they are payable but of no existing fund, and can only be expected to be paid (if at all) out of a future possible surplus revenue. At what period of the history of New Zealand in 'time to come such a revenue is likely to arise it would he difficult to foresee ; at .present all that we know is that Govein--ment it rushing' into expense and debt hand over head, and that, as far as we can judge by the past, there is no probability of .such proceedings ceasing for a long time to come. Then the Home Government has distinctly intimated that na assistance is to he looked for- ; from that quarter ; so that upon the whole we should very much prefer in our own case to hold, our goods, if we were a dealer,. than to part with them to Government for such problematical expectancies as may be ' 'founded on its debenture payments.. -„,'-.. . ', Private, assignais, fehin-r plasters, debentures, or whatever they are called, are lets 'objectionable, 1 because every, one can judge, in* ' a Ismail community, whether . the party issuing them, is a responsible: man or not; the. paper he puts out really represents property or not. They necessarily, however, form the most fluctuating and uncertain, of aU circulating media. A shilling shin-plaster of one man may be less valuable than a sixpenny one of bis neighbour's, und the : most responsible person may have more of them out than he can meet. Hence such documents are open to every objection which can, be made to a defective currency, and where resorted to will most certainly introduce the worst species of confusion and distrust in the commercial world. The monetary affairs of the settlement of Nelson have hitherto been conducted on the soundest principles. 1 The tight hold which the Union Bank has kept upon its pursestrings, and the pertinacious refusal of its late manager here to encourage any baseless speculations, or to. give accommodation to credits begotten by one signature upon another without existing property to support them; has had the most salutary effect. Whatever property we have in Nelson is our own : it is mortgaged neither to banks nor foreigners; and' to' this circumstance may he attributed in "a great fiegree the facility with which w$ haye.met and passed through the crisis of ;> .the last year. If, however, we. should now be foolish enough to commence a 'system of loose paper credits, the' advantages, of our .previous caution and forbearancei may soon be forfeited, and any future difficulties which may await the colony inf-'a financial point of VieW will assuredly^ inyolye J ufe among tne rest. Warse # ars $la<i ,to. learn! that the generality, ofthe settlers here' have determined not to have tanjithing to ,do with the Government debetfttfres, of which, as we staled in pur l^t.Wifehnittance baa arrived for the purpose of what is called by courtesy *\ paying"

the nylitia. We alfawftfre^that we may be^ cn^rfia %^»pt^.F|lii|sr with contu* macy; |n resisting : thisatterrtpt of his to put bS'hfojassignats upon^u& and he may pos-' sibly turn round upon us and say that if we will not be paid in such coin as he chooses, we shall not be paid at all, and shall have W defensive,: force jprdvided for us at Governments expense. 'But though such? a rejoinder might satisfy the Colonial Office, and wouTd he*very rhucti after "the manner of the would-be smart repartees of the clerks, of that department, it would hardlx satisfy the real justice of the case. We regard the assignats as no payment at all ; we consider them as calculated to induce the greatest monetary evils ; and we reject them both on public and private grounds. But is this any reason why we are not to be protected against the dangers which threaten the community of New Zealand ? If you won't fill your bellies with poison, you shall have nothing to eat : that is the plain English into which such a rejoinder might be put.

The statements which we made upon this subject last week were founded chiefly upon calculations in the Wellington Spectator. We have since received an Auckland paper, from which we extract an article showing that at all events we w«re guilty of no exaggeration, and that there is reason to believe that the amount of debentures already issued by Government is not less than about £50,000. This with a colonial revenue which cannot by any possibility be expected to exceed £20,000 for some years to come ! We are aware that it is possible that some part of the amount may be charged to the Home Government on the score of the rebellion ; but certainly only a portion of it; and many thousands which have been paid away for salaries and other purposes totally unconnected with the rebellion, and for the issue of which no authority existed, are in the market.

We observe that a native at Wellington, E Tako^ advertises two horses for hire, and adds that debentures will be taken, but not private shin-plasters, " as there is nothing Hfce 'Fitzßoy's booka book."' We suspect that this poor fellow may find his assertion too true, and that when his horses are ridden to a stand-still, " there is nothing like Fitzßoy's booka book." It is true that if he can fill his racks with them, and putting green spectacles on his horses persuade them that they are feeding on grass, as the Americans are said to do with a bundle of shavings, he may make them answer ; but unless the horses be as green as the spectacles we very much doubt the success of. the experiment. At all events, we hope that the Nelson settlers will not be deluded into a belief that they can satisfy their hunger with such trash, but that they will drum it out of their settlement to the tune of the Rogue's MarcJi.

An advertisement will be found in the Examiner of to-day, calling a meeting of all gentlemen summoned on the Grand Jury at the late Nelson assizes, to receive a reply from his- Excellency Governor Fitzßoy to the presentment of that jury made to the Court and forwarded by Mr. Justice Chapman to his Excellency. We have seen the reply, which is certainly a very extraordinary one, and we hope that every gentleman who has a regard for the privileges of the British Constitution and a respect for the high office of a Grand Juror, will make a point of attending the meeting.