HARD TIMES IN-AUCKLAND.

Colonist, Volume XVIII, Issue 2039, 22 February 1876, Page 4

HARD TIMES IN-AUCKLAND.

The Coromandel Mail thus writes in refer, ence to the alleged stagnation of business in Auckland and the prevailing distress at the Thames and Coromandel |:—" The cry throughout the Province at the present time, and, indeed, for aome time past, is that things are very bad in Auckland. 'Very bad ; trade horribly dull, and no money afloat-Couldn't possibly be: worse, sir,' says Mr Croaker. 'Things are at a dead standstill. There will be a general burst upY..Bjr,.yonmay .take my word.' . And what Croaker says of Auckland Downinthemouth ay at the Thames, and old Dismal when he speaksof Goromandel.' Times, indeed, must be very bad in Auckland when inside of a few weeks the people of that utterly shipwrecked city have only been able to spend five thousand pounds sterling iv witnessing the performances at Wilson's circus, Bloudin'a roperentertainment, and the last sensation drama at the Prince of Wales. Auck-land-must be in a profound state of commercial prostration- for she can only afford to build~a Becond' theatre, at; the cost of seven or eight thousand pounds, and stone buildings, shops, stores, and warehouses, to the paltry extent of a hundred thousand pounds. In Auckland the people find themselves necessitated, to live on butchers' meat, and it is only by the greatest economy they are able to obtaiu poultry and sucking pigs on Sundays. But if Auckland city is bad, how much worse is the Thames, where, labouring men are offered by a contemptible Government 6s a day for road work, which, of course, no man can possibly live on. Four nobblers a day, two shillings; losses at euchre, say"~another two shillings ; beer, one shilling; and. just one shilling left to provide food, lodging, and clothing. Goodness preserve us from such calamities. Better that men had never, been born than compelled to submit to such

hardships. And what shall we say for Coromandel ? Never were things in so low „• a state. It is true that one man cannot walk many yards down the street without meeting with another man who says, what will you have? and straightway tney adjourn to' an hotel and have it. if it be on a steamer one man will say to another, 'let us go below,' and they descend, and there and then they ' below' it. It is true that on Sundays our four churches are filled with handsomely dressed women and children, and men togged in broadcloth. It is also true that if an acrobat, or a performer, or a mesmerist were to come here to-morrow, the largest room would be crowded at 2s 6d a head for several nights running. If a butcher has half a dozen young lambs in his shop, there is a scramble among customers for loins and fore quarters, and the same in respect of tender veal; still things are so bad in Coromandel that it's just awful; indeed past thinking

about, arid what it is all going to come to we cannot possibly pretend to say."