"MRS BROWN" OF NEW ZEALAND.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 44, 21 February 1881, Page 4

"MRS BROWN" OF NEW ZEALAND.

Mr Arthur Sketohlsy sootns to have been somewhat bilious after his trip through New Zealand, in which " Mrs Brown " was not appreciated at what he probably thought hor value, and this ia how he relieves bimsp'if in a contribution to tho Bombay Gazette :— "Our journey through New Zsaland was like what one may imagine that of a judge on assize. We Btopped at every town, only to fiud ono more depressing than another. We pnesed through many places which were little better than brickfields, though they boasted ihe possession of hotels and institute?. These last named were curious flights of fancy, merely pleasing fictions, but tho hotels were cterir realities. I never saw so m.^ny unbappy drunken wretches, lying like swine in and about the doors, as I did in these hot P.'s — like swine (hey were only as to position, for they were incapable of jumping up, as a swine would have done, at the approach of danger. One can form a slight, though very slight, notion of the pandemonium exhibited by a goldfiold in full operation by witnessing a toidside hotel in either New Zealand or Australia, where a band of navvies or sheep- j shearers have arrived possessed of money, flushed with anticipation of tbeir only noiion of enjoyment of a holiday — unlimited indulgence in drink It is useless to dilate or moralise on a state of things which would appear to be irremediable, though t'uo consideration of tbe sut ject shoulJ check, one would think, the arrogant toae in which the English »re want to express coctempt for savage tribes and debased aborigines, since it must be allowed that the worse feature in savage life is the conduct, in many cases to be (raced solely to the black man having taken to imitate the conduct bftd habits of his civilised white brother. As we wound our weary way through New Zealand from town to town wo were struck, not bo much by the dreary aspect of the country, as by the air of desolation of the towns. One of those we visited, had been it is true, a few months previously nearly waßhed off the face of creation by a violent mountain torrent bursting over it. If, however, bait was true of that which we beard as to the rascelity of its inhabitants, no visitation, however disastrous, short cf destruction, could have been adequate to tbo deserts of such a nest of scoundrels, wherein, as we were told, hotels were openly dens of vice, and fraudulent bankruptcy, and every villiany rampant,'.were carried on with surprising ingenuity and audacity, and thoroughly successful through Complicity of confederates, male and female, in respectable positions. One debtor, we heard, had burned down his house to defraud all his creditors, as well as (he company in which he was heavily insured. It is true he only burnt one of his servants to deatb, having considerately removed his wife and family the day before the fire, which he would not have done had the woman not been hia confederate, the wretched servant having been left to eleep in the house (o save appearances. In many other towns in New Zaaland we obßerved the some depressed air about the people which mystified us till we had its existence explained (o us on the ground that the inhabitents of New Zealand in general were in a Btate of chronic insolvency. Thai there were at that time numbers of prosperous men throughout the islands is a statement no doubt perfectly true, though such cases were exceptional, the general condition of tbe people being one of insolvency. The truth is, the New Zealandera are exactly in the same position as gentlemen at Home who live by kite-fly ing r pawning their property, or any other device by which it is possible to live for a long time on nothing b year. Reckless purchases of land, facilitated by easily obtained advances of money, have led to this evil etate of things, and partially deadened tbe moral sense of many well- meaning ■peculators, who have been living on for years in a fools' paradise, as though they could go on borrowirg, and a day ol reckoning would never come, quite for getting that for however long a time you may go on renewing a bill it must be met somehow at last. It is urged by some that as long as in New Zealand the land exists on which money is advanced the lender is secured. But it is possible to overpawn your security, however valuable, and tbe price of land however good in quality, must, when over-mortgaged, in time, decline. It has been stated that every individual in New Zealand, from the infant in tbe cradle to tbe oldest inhabitant, would, if the debt of (he ialend were consolidated nnd distributed equally, be in debt £60. Being do financier, I can suggest no remedy for this state of things, from which I heartily wish my fellow-countrymen in New Zealand a speedy and happy deliverance ; whilst I should Bttongly advise capitalists to think well before they make either advances or investments in a country which has evidently indulged in overspeculation, and is looking up to unpleasant results, tbe product of gross imprudence, if it be not stigmatised by stronger terms."