CORRESPONDENCE.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume II, Issue 95, 30 December 1843, Page 379

CORRESPONDENCE.

To the Editor op the Nelson Examiner.

Sir— There are many sensible, worthy men amongst the working classes of this colony, but there are also a few who are sunk in the lowest depths of ignorance, and who, in consequence, possess the most absurd notions regarding the parties who risk large sums of money in the precarious trade of keeping the colony supplied with flour. I was never surprised to hear the odd opinions expressed by these poor ignorant people, because they are common in the more obscure parts of Britain; but, in your last week's paper, some of those very opinions are embodied in a letter, signed " Anti- Monopoly." Probably some of these poor people have been induced to hire a needy scribbler to arrange their ideas in this shape. The letter of itself is utterly unworthy of notice ; but the fact of its appearing in your paper may give it a weight sufficieht to mislead the ignorant and those who live at a distance. I mention this as an apology to the more sensible part of your readers, who might be surprised that any notice should be taken of the ridiculous letter in question. I shall answer, in few words, the assertions made in the first three paragraphs, the rest of the letter being so silly as to require no comment.

First, the fact of there having been no monopoly is proved by this, that there is no instance in the annals of colonization of the price of flour being kept at such an uniformly low price for the first two years as it has been in Nelson. Secondly, the wholesale price of first flour on the 15th instant was £15 per ton: and if any second flour should arrive, the price of it would be £12 10s., and it would be dishonest to lead merchants who ship flour to this place to expect more than those prices. Second flour has been sold lately, in small quantities, at the rate of from £13 to £15 per ton, and there is now none in the colony. There is at least four months' Supply in Nelson of as good first flour as was ever imported, and of which any one may buy a single ton at £18; a great proportion of it having cost the resident merchants (who are accused of shameless cupidity) above £17.

Thirdly, I believe no instance has ever occurred here of any captain or supercargo having disposed of his flour, without first fully ascertaining the state of the market, and the highest price that could be obtained for it. And if the resident merchants should keep no stock* as this sapient writer would seem to desire, consumers would find that flour would not long continue so low as it has hitherto been kept: and I can assure the people who have probably hired Mr. Anti- Monopoly that there is not a town in the world where the dealers in flour have done so little by it towards filling their own pockets as they have done in Nelson. I have stated these facts in a plain manner, adapted to the capacities of the most ignorant of those who may have been engaged in getting up the letter; but I may state that nothing from the same pen, however false or preposterous, will provoke me' to take any further notice of it, and if any other information is wanted you may give the applicants my address. I am,- sir, Your obedient servant, A Flour Merchant.