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Wellington Independent, Volume XXIX, Issue 4051, 12 March 1874, Page 2

With respect to a leading article which appeared in the " Evening Post" of Tuesday, on the subject of Wellington Provincial finance, we are authorised to state that full particulars of the matter have not been published because of a natural hesitation to anticipate proceedings in the Supreme Court. Indeed, were it not for the well-known leniency of the Judge, our contemporary would scarcely have ventured to publish the article to which we have referred. Many publishers of articles of ,the kind, respecting matters pendente lite, have ere now found themselves in Court, charged with, contempt. But this we may say : we feel sure that when all the facts of the case are known, the Provincial Council of Wellington, the people of the Province, and, indeed, the Colony as a whole, will be grateful to the Government for having arrested an unreBtrained expenditure of public money such as no other Provincial Treasurer has ever dared to attempt.

Which way does the money go ? Late on Saturday night or early on Sunday morning, as the handbills are wonted to I say, two sailors were drowned immediately south of Happy Valley, in Cook Strait. One of them had £800 to his credit in a Nowcastle Bank, and the other about £200. Now, the question arises, what will become of this money 1 Will it be flotsani or jetsam, or will it be a prey to a land-shark in the shape of a Government or a Bank ? Of course, we may presume that the two poor fellows j who died had, with customary indiscretion, made no wills. The Bank will have to resist any attempt from an illegal claimant. A legal one would have the very greatest difficulty in substantiating his rights, and yet sailors are advised to save their money instead of frittering it away in drunken orgies or to lodginghouse crimps. In the case in question, it would seem that the two unfortunate men saved their money to very little purpose. A Bank pass-book in the name of some other person, supposed to be a sailor, was picked up on the beach on Tuesday. The person to whom it belonged had money to his credit in an Auckland Bank. The Board of Trade appears to be carrying out with zealousness their efforts to prevent unseaworthy vessels from being sent to sea, to the danger of the lives of those who sail in them. By the last English papers, we observe that the officers of the Board had begun to look into the date of the colliers — mostly owned in the North of Ireland — which carry on the coal-trade between the ports of Ulster and the West of Scotland. The inquiry was certainly not made before it was time, for the fleet is composed almost entirely of old and worn-out ships, unfit for any other trade, and dangerous in it. The first result was the committal for trial of a shipowner of Newry, named Hunter,, for sending a brigantine, called the Repealer, to sea in an unworthy condition. She had foundered at sea on her voyage from Troon to Wicklow. The next was the examination before the magistrates at Belfast, of Messrs Peter and Thomas John Quin (father and son), and their committal for trial at the Antrim Assizes, for sending the brigantine Nimrod on a voyage from Belfast to Ayr when she was in a most dangerous condition. The Nimrod had been forced past her port, and up to Glasgow, where her state was discovered. The latest report of the London New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company is dated the 13th of January last, and was specially prepared for transmission by the first San Francisco mail. In reviewing the price of money during the past year, it remarks upon the extraordinary fluctuations in value which occurred, and attributes them in a great measure to the payment of the French indemnity, the change of the standard of currency in Germany from silver to gold, and the financial crisis in the United States, all of which had assisted the absorption of the large quantity of gold drawn from England. It is curious to note, however, that on the 9th of January and the 11th of December of the past year, the Bank's minimum rate was the same, namely, 4£ per cent., though it had risen in June, and again in October, to 7, and in November to 9 per cent. The exports for the year had fallen off onehalf per cent in value, but prices having ruled higher the falling off in quantity was more observable. In December the decline was considerable, being 6f per cent, on cottons, woollens, and linens, and 27 per cent on iron and steel. The financial undertakings of the year are represented by very large figures. Those* placed on the English market alone reached the sum of £79,500,000, and those on the English and other markets £75,100,000— t0ta1, £154,600,000; the actual money calls reaching £101,150,000. The foreign loans of themselves aggregated £86,000,000, and the eagerness with which investments of that character were still sought was held to show that there was still abundance of capital seeking employment. A dividend at the rate of seven per cent, for the half-year had been paid by the Union Bank of Australia. The following were the quantities of New Zealand wool catalogued at the various sales during the year :— lst, 2946 bales ; 2nd, 25,519 ; 3rd, 62,254 j 4th, 26,116; and sth, 11,628 ; total, 128,463 bales. The arrivals from this Colony for the first sale last month were only 22G6 ; and the prospects for the sale were considered much more favorable than they were a few weeks previously. These hopes were based on the easiness of money, an active demand for France, and increasing inquiry for the home market. The unfortunate state of the market for New Zealand hemp is accounted for "by the sympathy

that exists between ManillaY, and New" ; Zealand hemp," the latter, Reclining: . whenever there is a fall in and by the. absence of demand for export to the United States and Canada. The present year opens, it is said, with an improvement of from 4s to 6s per cwt. for good clean hard qualities of kauri gum.