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New Zealand Mail, Issue 361, 11 January 1879, Page 15

I? La mast satisfactory to be able at last to find that the money market at Home is getting cosier. It will be seen by our London telegrams that Consols are uow up to 95|-, which is ft higher rate than has ruled for some time past. In addition to this, from Ber’in the intelligence has been flashed across the sea that the Government organ there regards the political horiz >n as clearer than for a long time past. No Court in Europe is better wupplied with trustworthy information from the best sources than Berlin ; and as if to prove the correctness of the view expressed, from Constantinople we hear on the same day that all the grent Powers exchanged assurftaeee of amby, after beipg received in a most friendly wav by the Sultan. All our telegrams bear date the 3rd, and we look forward with confidence to the uext news, and expect it. to show even a better tone in the world’s money market, and the commencement of revival in trade. The tightness which has lately ruled in onr local money market in Wellington has been explained in many ways, but we have heard no more probable solution •of the difficulty offered than the following:— New Zealand banks are said to have invited money on deposit in Scotland as well as elsewhere. The collapse of the City of Glasgow Bank, whose capital was partly locked up in land in New Zealand, weakened the confidence of owners of such deposits, and they began to withdraw their capital; their action would at once make itself felt here, and hence the recent tightness. The pressure put upon business men trading greatly on credit may now be expected to be eased; and as there can be no doubt whatever that landed securities in New Zealand are about as good paper as can be wished for, we hope that the tightness which has been so much talked about may now disappear, and leave no trace behind. The disgraceful rumors current during the last few days of failures in this city have fortunately proved one and all untrue; and now that there is every prospect of a better time coming, it is to be hoped that we shall hear no more of such canards..

Provision will be made for a passenger station only on the Thorndon reclamation. This, in so many words, is the answer given by Mr. Macandrew to the deputation that waited upon him on Friday. Even half a loaf is better than no bread, and in these day 3 it behoves Wellington people to be thankful for small mercies.. Gratitude has been defined as a lively expectation of future favors, and in this spirit we think the gratitude of our fellow-citizens may fairly be offered to the Minister of Public Works. It is undeniable that ic was perfectly understood that a site for a railway station was to be reserved by the Govei'nment the reclaimed land. Now, after an attempt to ignore this unwritten part of the contract altogether, the pressure of public opinion has compelled the Government to make an unwilling concession, which after all is but half of what was tacitly agreed upon. In Auckland, where a railway wharf is already an accomplished fact, the business carried on at the Queen’s Wharf was sufficiently great to cause the public to clamor for an extension of the railway to the latter also. This will shortly be done, and then no doubt our Northern rival will* be able to sneer at the want of dispatch displayed by Wellington people in loading and unloading the shipping that comes into their port. Even the passenger station that has been promised is nothing grand, it may prove to be only a small shed, with no more accommodation than is now supplied at Pipitea Point. The fact seems to be that the title to the estate left by the late Provincial Council has been in dispute. The possession, which is generally supposed to be nine points of the law, r-ists with the Ministry, ancl they seem fully inclined to take every advantage of it. The idea of considering what the original objects of the promoters of the undertaking were does not seem to have entered the heads of the Ministers; the wishes of the defunct Council are not deemed worthy of notice. On the contrary, the one idea preseut in the mind of Mr. Macandrew is plainly how to make the most political capital out of the windfall that has accrued to him. Sell as much of the land as possible he says in effect. His words are “ I don’t think the colony is in a position to afford it” (i.e. to grant a sufficient area for a goods station), “and I don’t think it is absolutely neceesary. As I said before, the passenger staj> tiou will be brought as near the centre of the city as possible, and ultimately perhaps to the other end ; but the goods station, I think, with all deference, is better where it is.” Possibly Mr. Macandrew may think so, but then he is not a merchant in Wellington ; if he were, he might very possibly be more inclined to agree with Mr. Nathan that those who have to provide for the transport of goods within the city know best what arrangements would suit their convenience. The present “ personal” Government seems to extend even to the Public Works department, as Mr. Macandrew in reference to this very point, assumes quite a paternal attitude towards the citizens of Wellington. He informs them that “ Sometimes people do not know what iebe3t for themselves.” We have hitherto been of the opinion that no one knows so well where the shoe pinches aa the wearer,” but Mr. Macandrew is inclined to dispute this proverb. Even the two sections demanded are not promised. “ If it is necessary,” says he, “ they will be reserved.” It will be a station of some sort or other, and if these two sections are necessary they will be withdrawn from sale. The right that the • whole colony has to share in the proceeds of

this sale, which was due to the foresight of the Wellington Provincial Council, has not yet been made clear. If the saying of Rochefoucault be trne, “ that in the misfortunes of others there is always something over which one rejoices,” we may expect that Mr. Macandrew s blindness to the claims which the city has to be consulted as to the use to which this reclamation shall be put will cause some malicious satisfaction in the breasts of dwellers in other New Zealand cities.