Commercial.

Wellington Independent, Volume XV, Issue 1403, 3 February 1860, Page 2

Commercial.

There have, trea numerous Auction' Sales this week, including landed property, cattle, and merchandise ; hut prices, generally speaking, have ruled low. We notice a small shipment of potatoes in the Lord Worsley,- aud trust 'the .exporter may receive a profitable return, am it n»ay be. an induse* merit for others to enter more largely into the trade. Our last fidvioes -from Sydney tjuote potatoes at frcf 610 to £12 per ton, aud in Tasmania they weh»)>; filing at 's&. -per. 1 lb. We think that these prices ■would leave * profit to the exporter here, and ii would-be. well. to footer our exports by every possible means. Wb have geeu letters from England, si.atLig.tuat Now Zealand Flax, had beea selling. f.'ojn ££&. to ton, according to the condition it .was sent home in. O.lann good samples of flfvx, well hackled, would command £32 per ton. New Zealand Farnuure woods were also being enquired for.

Ne\oU>n lws finished loading '«nd will sail for London in a few days. The de Bpfttch given to this vessel reflects great credit upon '^Captain Menzies and her agents, Messrs. Wm ' \Bot»ler, Son; & Co.; for since her arrival in Wei. lington, she has not had one lay day, for on diß--'charging her inward cargo, she immediately oom- .' financed loading, Sfee has completed her list ol 'passengers being quite full, and has been obliged to Refuse applications for passage and freight On Saturday, the ?Bth wit., Mr. John vrarim, 'sold by public Auction, at th« Upper Hatt, a Lease. hold consisting of an acre «nd a half of land front- _ ing the road, with the dwelling homes, erected thereon, : ( 18 years unexpired, at a rent of £3 per c annum), for JJSO. ._ On Monday, the SOtlT ult«, Mr. J, H. Wallace ; -Bold bf" public auction, at his laud Mart, a section <*t 100 acre* of. land in Hoi'ikiwi Valley for £Sl lOs. A Land Order, choice 330, Manawntn, fr>r £2% 10s. Two allotments of land in Haining- . street, T.e Aro, at £1 per foot. On Monday, the 80ib 'alt , Messrs. Duncan and sttld %y public auction, at the Btorea of W. W. "Toy lor, Esq., a large and miscellaneous assortment of merchandise, consisting of clothing, drapery, hosiery, perfumery, ironmongery, &c, too -numerous to particularise. There was a large attendance, and the prices realized were considered satisfactory. , 'On Wednesday, Mr. J. H. Wallace sold at the jFJutt, 9 bullocks, averaging i!sea.*h; a colt, IDs.; a bay entire, £10. There were also sold privately six working blocks, dray, bows, yokes, and chains complete, for £ 70. Yesterday, Messrs. Dutiean and Vennell sold by tftt'jli© auction, the cargo of the Ariel from Melbourne,— 1 / horses, averaging $19 each ; American buckets, 3 hoops, 17s. 6d. to 18s. per doz. ; nest fnbi,-2&>. per nest; ftonr. damaged, £-20 per ion; congou tea, half chests, 855.; guupowder tea, 2s. *6d. per lb. ; No. 2 Manila cigars, 60a. per 1000 (in %6nd) ; linseed oil. 4s. 9i). to ss. Bd. per gallon ; 'tins herrings, 2 dox. eanh, Is. 2d. per tin; bar iron, ' >i»l0 to JGII per ton ;. cider, 9s. per doz. Afer the above sale, Messrs. Duncan & Vennell sold at Mr. Soodrich's, Lambton Quay, the remain- J der of his Stock-in-trade, consisting of groceries, Jfco. There wss a large attendance, and the goods ! v were sold at fair prices. " We extract the following description of the ; fihancial difficulties of Melbourne from a Sydney Morning Herald of last month. "We aro in' the midst of a crisis here — monetary •^nd commercial. The banks are short of money, • and are under heavy obligations to the Govern-•ment-to provide funds for the railway works. The •colony is'borrowing at the rate of £250,000 pei /month for English capitalists, and yet we are " shipping sovereigns. The people are employed on the railways, aud are paid from the borrowed -funds, and yet* complaints are the order of the day, and failures are as common as complaints. If there were no borrowed moneys coming in and no '^railway works being carried on, what a fearful state we should be in 1 " The banks appear by their acts to have suddenly opened their eyes and to have discovered •that our commercial system is rotten beyond recovery. They are pressing every one, good, bad, •and indifferent; men with piles of deeds in the ! banks' strong-rooms and men with paper that was -in great favour a few weeks since. Firm after firm is suspending and consternation is taking the 'ftface of confidence. Who is to blame for this state of things ! The banks say not we, and ask, ''canyou point us out one firm that has gone which could have been saved? Supposing that this question must be answered in the negative, what does ■that .prove -except that the banks have been nursing insolvent estates to their own advantage, and •to the ruin of unsecured creditors ? Not one-half of the numerous estates sequestrated, assigned, or -arranged for winding up within the last three -weeks will pay 2s. 6d. in the pound, and yet, up -to the date of suspension, the nominal proprietors ;were nursed by the banks. The fact is, that the banks have encouraged overtrading, in order to swell their dividends, and have retired after the -eponge has been squeezed dry. The wonder is, that our limited population, living one upon another— catering, not producing (have not eaten each other up long ago. A rotten ; system has been vamped to the injury of legitimate commerce. A false value is "attached to labour, and labour is unemployed. A false value is attached to house rent. Competition causes rents to be submitted to, but that for the lasthalfyear is received through the Commissioner of Insolvency. Prices of imported goods are kept up, m order that the false system of expenses may be 'maintained and importers are " going" daily. If things could be made to settle down whatachange there would be. Until they have done so the fcolony of Victoria will be in a false position ; land, labour, commerce, will be nominally high T)ut really insecure and unprofitable^"