GOVERNMENT DEBENTURES.

New Zealander, Volume 1, Issue 15, 13 September 1845, Page 3

GOVERNMENT DEBENTURES.

[From the Nelson Examiner.] ' The ordinance of Council which authorized Captain Fitz Roy to issue debentures chargeable on the future colonial revenue limited the amount to be issued to £15,000. These were to be issued in .various suras, and have been so issued, as low as five shillings each, which, as every tyro in currency questions knows, was calculated to have most injurious effects in a commercial point of view. No sooner did Lord Stanley learn what was doing, than he directed Captain Fitzroy to recal these debentures, or as many as had been issued, and to substitute for them others «f the amount of £50 each. ■ That is to say, wherever he could he was to buy fifty pounds' wotth of the small debentures with a £50 debenture. This was to prevent the injurious effects upon the currency which the small debentures were sure to have ; as the large ones from their, amount, would, rather be held as securities than used as a circulating medium; and though the Government would still be as much in debt as ever, less public inconvenience v\ ould arise. Now Captain Fitzroy, having received instructions to issue the £50 debentures, loses no time about it ; but instead of taking up the small ones with them, as Lord Stanle) diiected him, he pays official salaries and other debts, and the £15,000 worth of am all debentures still circulate to their original extent, while the public cheat is burdened with the further debt of the new debentures. But this is not all. £15,000 worth of small debentures and £15,000 of large debentures are £30,000 together, and might, one would have thought, have satisfied Captain Fitz Roy for once. But his Legislative Council pass a resolution authorising him to issue debentures to any amount necessary to pay off the Government debts, such debentures to ha*e priority as to interest over all other charges on the revenue. Now the deMs referred to are not those of the moment onl\,but such as may accumulate from time to time, in in short, all the salaries and other Government outlay, as long as more substantial cash is wanting |in the Treasury. This resolution was passed oa [ the 10th of April lust. It further appears certain f by an examination I of the numerical older of the debentures in cirulation, that at least £28,000 and perhaps £40,000

worth are now afloat ; and the Wellington S^ectator, which states this fact, calculates that before the } ear is over not much less than £70,000 worth will be in the hands of the public. It will he remembered that Lord Stanley has distinctly told Captain Fitz Roy that he is not to expect any more extensive aid from the Home Treasury;' and it is quite clear, from what fell from Sir Robert Peel in March last, in the House of Commons, that hew ill not lend his countenance to these debentures. r \ here is not therefore the remotest chance of their ever being paid except from the surplus levenue of the colony. At present, the first issued debentures are a legal tender under the ordinance. But none beyond theamotint of £15,000 are so, and it is therefore very impoitant lor the public to know fiom time to time the exact state of the issue. The Wellington merchants have held a meeting and passed resolutionscondemuing the over-issue, and forwarded a memorial to the Governor requesting to be informed how many debentures have been issued, distinguishing those issued before from those issued after the resolution of Council. When Lord Stanley directed the small debentures to be redeemed by the large, he did not know (at least officially) that Capmin Fitz Roy and the Legislative Council had made them a legal tender. It is quite clear that this will not be allowed at home. The House of Commons has already said as much, though in the absence of official information of the fact. Well, then, the next ship will bring ant new s to that effect, or u may come out earlier by the way of'S)dney. The debentures will no longer be a legal tender, either great or small. What will their value be when it is optional to refuse them i It is, however, optional now to a certain extent; that is, every peison may, before he sells, stipulate that he is not to be paid in debentures, and this is done by prudent dealeis every day. Money panics, money fluctuations, money crisis arethewoist things that can happen in a commercial country. Neither the plague, the cholera morbus,, nor small-pox — shipwreck, fire or murrain, are mole to bedreaded. The £IC,OOO worth or other amount of Govei nment debentures now in circulation are, as far as we can learn, kept up to within about 10 percent, of the value of gold and silver, by means of iheii being n ade a legal tender, and the still more import? Nt fact of the limit supposed to cust to their i&sue. But now that the limit is known to be u iti.drawn, that alone in a commercial community is enough to depreciate them largelyj and when in addition news comes that they are no longer a legal tender, they may be expected to pass for very little indeed j perhaps a one-pound debenture may go for ten shillings, So if any man shall to-day part with goods worth eighteen shillings fora One-pound debenture, he may two months hence change his debenture for ten 'shillings, or buy ten shillings' worth of goods with it. Fiom such results as this, money panics and sudden fluctuations in the value of the circulating medium are to be'dreaded. We are not aware of the amountof debentures circulating in this settlement, but believe it is small. We are informed, however, by private letteis from Wellington, that £150 worth have been sent by the Palmyra to meet the pay of the Nelson Militia, which by the way it will do foi about one fottnight. 'We have no wish to depreciate the Government assiynuts more than public faith declar.es they ought to be depreciated} but we think we should be neglecting our duty to the public, and particularly the poorer clat-s, if y e did not point their attention to the facts we have stated.