Colonial Bank of Issue.

New Zealander, Volume 7, Issue 511, 8 March 1851, Page 3

Colonial Bank of Issue.

The merits and demerits of the Paper Currency Ordinance underwent such a full and searching examination, (so far as the subject could be theoretically examined), while the measure ■was before the Legislative Council in 1847, that we did not deem it necessary to re-open the abstract question when the Colonial Bank of Issue was actually established, but preferred waiting until the jnacical working of the scheme should furnish data on which a judgment warranted by experience might be formed. Neither did we conceive that the Monthly Returns published in the Government Gazette afforded such data to any satisfactory extent, restricted as they were both in regard to the time over which they severally reached, and especially in regard to the kind and amount of information which they supplied. The Ordinance made express provision for the publication of a Report of a more comprehensive and complete character, and specifically fixed the first of March as the date on or before which that Report should appear To secure that it should be forthcoming at the appointed time, a heavy fine was enacted as the penalty for its non-publication. The following is the clause of the Ordinance to which we allude. 31. Tt shall also be the duty of the Colonial Treasurer to publish in the Government Gazette, on or liefon- the first day of March, in each year, verified by his signature, a statement of the total amount of such notes in circulation, issued or re hsued, from the seveial offices of the said Bank of Issue, which shall be in circulation at the close of the year then next preceding ; of the total amount of the gold and silver coin held at every such office at the same period, and of the total amount of the cash of the said bank then invested at interest, as hereby required, shewing the nature of the security, the rate of interest, and also an account of any cash which, having been invested at interest, slnll hate been repaid, together with an account shewing the expenses incurred in the conduct and management of the said Bank for such year, and the nature and amount of the tunds received applicable to defray the same. Nothing can be more explicit than this. But the first of March has come and gone, and the Return has not appeared. We are altogether at a loss to account for this omission. In the case of a measure which was forced upon the colony against such earnest and general opposition, it might have been expected that special care would betaken to comply with a requirement calculated to enable the public to ascertain for themselves whether the objections were well or ill-founded, — whether or not the operation of the Ordinance is what its advocates or its opponents respectively predicted. It is barely possible that the Return has been issued at Wellington ; although it may admit of grave doubts whether that would be a legitimate compliance with the enactment. At all events, we shall very soon know if it has been done. Meanwhile, the subject is not likely to be lost sight of by those •who are desirous of obtaining that information •which, according to the unequivocal terms of the Ordinance, should now be placed within their reach.

Since writing the article in our last respecting the excitement produced amongst the Members of the Church of England in South Australia

by the now celebrated Minutes of the Meeting of Bishops at Sydney, we have been favoured with an opportunity of perusing Adelaide papers which we had not then seen, and which add some particulars worth placing on vecord, as parts of the history of a movement which may, not improbably, lead to not only stirring scenes, but serious results as respects the Anglican Church in the Australian Colonies. On the day after the Meeting of which we gave some account in Wednesday's paper, His Excellency Sir H. E. P. Young addressed a letter to Mr. Stock, the Lay Secretary of the Church of England Society, which we regret to be obliged to characterise as one of the most undignified and ill-tempered pieces of downright scolding, that it has been our lot to read from the pen of any Governor or other gentleman, in relation to the affairs of a religious i Institution or the discussion of a religious subject. Because a copy of the Resolution had not been previously forwarded to him, his Excellency does not scruple to charge Mr. MacDermott and the Rev. Mr. Woodcock with " deception," " want of openness and candour," " moral cowardice," and " disingenuousness." He commences his letter by stating that he j wrote it after having " reflected" on the transactions at the Meeting ; and concludes by declaring that he will no longer act as Patron of the Society. The envelope of this extraor- [ dinary missive was endorsed, — " Let the enI closure be published. H. E. F. Y." After waiting for a week, in the hope that His Excrllfncy — notwithstanding his statement ihat he wrote on reflection — would repent and withdraw the letter, the Rev. W. J. Woodcock replied at some length, and in a strain which showed that he at least was not under the influence of « moral cowardice." He disclaims all intentional discourtesy towards His Excellency or any other person, and asks forgiveness if anything needlessly offensive h is been said or done j but he points out the right of any Member of the Society to bring forward such a proposition as Mr. MacDermott's j shows that the motion really involved no decision on the doctrine of Baptismal Regeneration or any other polemical or theological question ; and, as respects His Excellency's own proceedings, deals with them with a frankness which may be judged of by the following paragraphs : — " After having slept and reflected upon it, your Excellency penned a letter which I will nottrust myself to characterise. Every effort consistent with a sense of duty on the part of the Chutch Committee to induce you to withdraw it, having failed, it is now placed upon the records of the Society; whether to your credit, considering the high position you fill in this Colony, yourself, your friends, and the public must judge. * * " Now, Sir. obviously the price demanded for your continued patronage was the unqualified condemnation, if not expulsion, from the Society, of one of its foundeis, one of its best supporters, one of its brightest ornaments, Mr. Marshall MacDermott, together with the humble individual who addresses you. Such sacrifice, however, the Committee could not consistently or justly make. Unless, therefore, your Excellency should relax somewhat in your demands, they must endeavour to reconcile themselves to the loss of your services." On the day before the Meeting of the Church Society, the Bishop held his Visitation at Christ Church, North Adelaide, and delivered a Charge, in the course' of which he " claimed for the office which, by Divine permission, he holds, the first place of autkority in the Church, next under its Divine Head, not, however, asserting for it either sole or despotic power ;" — adverted to " the important fact" of the late Meeting of Bishops in Sydney ; — declared his attachment to the doctrine of Baptismal Regeneration ;— and, commenting largely on the judgment in the Gorham case, stated his objections to the constitution of the Court by which it was pronounced, and his desire that that constitution should be altered. The ceremony of laying the Foundation Stone of an Episcopal Residence was afterwards performed. His Lordship also, at the Church Society Meeting, expressed a wish that the people " would build him, he would not say a cathedral, but a church ; he did not hope to realize the architectural magnificence of the Middle Ages, but an edifice capable of containing 1,200 persons, and no disgrace to the architectural taste of the Colony." These and other ecclesiastical matters engross so much of the South Australian journals that we find little else calling for notice. The non -arrival of an official copy of the Australian Colonies Bill had been sharply animadverted on as a new "insult" from Downing Street ; but on the 20th of January it was received. And " thereby hangs a tale." It appears that the Act was sent by the Ascendant, not as part of the mail, " but put on board at the last moment, and given in charge of the Steward, who put it into a dirty clothes' box, where it was discovered when the clothes were taken out to be washed " ! The LieutenantGovernor immediately issued a proclamation declaring the Act in force. The South Australian was dwelling on the increase of crime in the Colony. It appears that the convictions in the Supreme Court have about quadrupled within the last six years. Our contemporary says, " We must look to Van Diemen's Land' for the source of the evil," ami corroborates this view by the fact, shown by reference to a late Repoit from Mr. Hampton, Comptroller- General of Convicts in Van Diemen's Land, thjft the number of convicts free by servitude or conditional pardon who left that Colony for South Australia had greatly increased within the last three years.

These circumstances seemed to operate on the South Australians as additional incentives to aid in the combined movement to bring about a total cessation of Transportation to any part of the Australian Colonies.