DEBENTURES. [From the Nelson Examiner.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume I, Issue 50, 20 September 1845, Page 3

DEBENTURES. [From the Nelson Examiner.]

We mentioned last week that many of our merchants and storekeepers had resolved to resist as far as possible the further introduction of debentures into this settlement, and that a document expressing this determination had beeu drawn up, and was about to be sent to the Police Magistrate. The following is the document referred to :—: — (Co H y.) Nelson, Aug. 16, 1815. To D. Sinclair, Esq., Captain Commandant of the Neison Battalion of Militia. Sir,- Understanding that debentures have been remitted to you to pay the militia, which it is the intention of the Government shortly to call out upon duly in this settlement, we, the unriei signed merchants,storekeepers,and others, deem it a duty we owe to ourselves and to the labouring class, who will principally compose the force about to be enrolled, to forewarn the Government and inform them that we have come to the determination of refusing to sell our goods or produce for anything but sterling money, or paper immediately convertible into such, and consequently cannot take debentures in payment, and that for the following reasons, viz — 1. We have experienced great difficultyalready in paying away the comparatively few debentures which have found their way into this settlement, and have only been induced to take them because we considered the number in circulation no more than could be absorbed in the payment of duties of customs. But now, when it is intended to issue them in quantities sufficient for the whole circulation of the settlement, it must put a stop entirely to our ability of supplying ourselves with imported commodities; for 2. The wholesale merchant and importer, who cannot convert the debentures into cash or bdls to pay fur his imports, refuses to take them from the retail dealer, who will thus (should they become the principal circulating medium) be unable to renew his stock ; and we have not yet a surplus or stock of any other commodity which we can export inpayment of our imports. 3. As those holding debentures will be eager to change them even at a sacrifice into convertible money, we will thus soon be drained of all our sterling silver coin, and forced, as in Wellington and Auckland, to have recourse to the highly objectionable system of issuing small private debentures to supply the deficiency. 4. In the beginning of February 1845, some whose names are appended to this document protested against the le of the issue of the debentures and of the ordinance making them a legal tender, a copy,-ef which protest was for-* warded through you to the Governor at the time ; and subsequent information of the light in which they are viewed both in Parliament and by the Ministry in England tend to confirm us in the correctness of the view thett taken.

5. Even allowing that the issue of a limited quantity of inconvertible paper was both advisable and lawful, still, from all the information we can collect, the amount which the Government was authorised by the home authorities to issue has been very much exceeded, and consequently until we are informed of the amount actually in circulation, we can have no confidence in their ultimate redemption, or of a limit being put to their depreciation. [Signed by twenty-five of the principal dealers and farmers. J

Copy of the Protest referred to above. Protest against and declaration^of invalidity of a certain ordinance called the Debentures Ordinance, 7th V.R., Sess. 111., No. 4, an ordinance to authorize the Governor of New Zealand to issue Debentures, and to make the same a Legal Tender. Passed the 18th May 1844. We, the undersigned landowners, settlers, merchants, and inhabitants of the colony of New Zealand, having fully and deliberately considered the enactments of the aboverecited ordinance, feel it incumbent upon ourselves, in the faithful observance of the allegiance which we owe to our sovereign lady the Queen, as well as from a due regard for the preservation of our rights and property, and for the general welfare of the colony, to enter our protest ag<iin«t the enactments of the said ordinance, and publicly to declare our conviction of its invalidity; for the following reasons : — 1. By the royal charter, 'issued, by authority of the act of Parliament therein lecited, under the great seal of the United Kingdom, constituting the colony of New Zealand, it is provided " that all instructions which shall, in pursuance of the said recited act, be made by he 1 - Majesty, with the advice of her Privy Council, shall be laid before both houses of Parliament within one month from the date of any such instructions, or from the commencement of the next ensuing session* of Parliament " and further, " that in -he making of all laws and ordinances the Legislative Council for the colony shall conform to and observe all such instructions as her Majesty, with the advice of her Privy Council, shall from time to time make for their guidance therein." 2. In conformity to the said charter, her Majesty did issue instructions under the sign manual and signet, dated the sth day of Decemjfer, 1840, for the Governor of this colony fo®e time being, which were duly laid before£^^liament in the session 1841, directing in section 11, " that the Governor do not propose or assent to any ordinance whatever relating to any of the matters mentioned or referred to in the said charter and these instructions which shall be in anywise repugnant to or inconsistent with such charter or instructions, but that any such ordinance, or pretended ordinance, shall be void to all intents and purposes; and in section 14, " that the Governor do not assent to any ordinance whatever whereby bills of credit or other negotiable securities, of whatever nature, may be issued in lieu of money on the credit of the colony, or whereby any Government paper money currency may be established therein, or whereby any such bills, or any other paper currency, or any other coin, sare only the legal coin of the realm, may be made or declared to be a legal tender, without special permission from her Majesty in that behalf first obtained." 3. By the late arrivals from England, accounts have been received of the proceedings in Parliament and of its prorogation, but it does not appear that any fresh instructions have been laid before Parliament, giving special permission for issuing debentures and making them to be a legal tender. 4. From the above considerations, we conclude that the Governor and Legislative Council had no warrant fur passing the aboverecited pretended ordinance, which according to the terms of section 11 of the royal instructions, is therefore absolutely null andvoid to all intents and purposes. Considering, therefore, that the contravention of the royal instructions is an infringement of the most beneficial prerogative of the Crown, which every liege subject is bound to resist, and convinced of the injurious effects invariably produced in any country by the frmoduction of a ficticious currency, which deteriorates the property, retards the development of its resources, and destroys its credit, we solemnly protest hei eby against any further attempt being made to force upon us as a legal tender the debentures issued by his Excellency Governor Fitzroy, which even the Home Government has not the power, post facto, to sanction ; and which must therefore be strictly considered as the mere private notes of his Excellency, pledging neither this colony nor the Home Government; and we further protest and reserve for ourselves compensation for any loss, damage, or costs which we have sustained or may incur from the issuing of the said debentures as a legal tender without the special permission of her Majesty in that behalf having been first obtained. We have executed two original copies of the present protest and declaration, one to be laid before his Excellency Governor Fitzroy, and the other to be transmitted direct, via Sydney, to the Principal Secretary for the Colonies; simple copies are to be furnished to the Superintendent for the Southern Division, and to the Government Representative in each settlement: the seveial newspapers we request to publish the same; and we invite every independent and true friend to the colony to signify his concurrence in and adhesion to it.