COMMERCIAL SUMMARY.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 273, 11 March 1848, Page 3

COMMERCIAL SUMMARY.

It is painful to take a retrospective view of the commercial circle since the departure of our last issue. However much our readers may be prepared to hear of increased difficulties and consequent disasteis, we defy the most prolific imagination to realize anything commensurate with the total prostration of credit, and the general gloom and disquietude that abounds throughout every class of the commercial community in this country, and although we proceed to detail some of the most important of the failures which have taken place since the 7th instant, they only reptesent a small object in the foreground of a most dismal picture." Sad, however, and excited as we may be by the fall of houses which have long enjoyed an honourejd name, we fain would hope that as the sea of trouble gradually subsides, it will safely bear the solvent and the wise to profit by the errors which have shipwrecked men of ample means and energy. That money can be cheap, or even moderately plentiful during the present year, we conceive to be altogether improbable, for even assuming there should be a cessation of failures, and a restoration of confidence, caution, and the many heavy calls, national and individual, which we have to provide against will prevent decided ease. The progress towards a healthier state of things must be slow — we trust it will be steady. The supply of food we believe is adequate to all our wants, and mostly paid for to the extent ol £26,000,000 sterling within the last nine months. Railway works, without being stopped, will now proceed in fitter accordance with the surplus capital of the country, and foreign loans be taken to more facile markets.* Activity of trade, buoyancy of feeling, and becoming energy, we trust there will be, but after our difficulties we should mistrust any indication of greatly ■extended facilities. r We hold it, however,' to be the duty of Government and individuals to aid in restoring that lost confidence through which alone we can hope to escape from evil* of far greater- magnitude than those which

even up to this time have been so unhappily I forced to notice. While writing the foregoing remarks, it appears that a deputation of London bankers, headed by Mr. Glyn, M.P., and Mr. Samuel Gurney, and consisting of ten influential gentlemen, had an interview with Lord John Russell for the purpose of urging upon him the necessity for an increased issue of Bank of England notes to the extent of four millions sterling. The deputation was favourably received. The Premier informed them that the subject was under the consideration of 'Government ; and appointed one o'clock on Monday (this day) to give them a definite answer. The impression left on the minds of the deputation is, that Government are about to adopt some measures of relief of the kind required by the deputation. Matters have now arrived at such a crisis in the monetary and commercial world, produced fay terror and want of confidence, for it is universally admitted that fear has caused much of our present evils and aggravated them all, it is assured that without Government aid, the existing and extending alarm cannot be stayed. We therefore sincerely hope some sound and judicious measure will be devised and carried out. Now to our painful narrative. The week ending Saturday 9th, wound up heavily. The failure of Rickards, Little, & Co., though not of any magnitude, was, from the position which the senior partner held as a Bank Director, and director of the " Company of Copper Miners in England," of some importance. The liabilities have not been stated but it is believed they do not exceed £50,000 beyond debts due to several branches of the family who are net in trade. A meeting of Reid, Irving, & Co.'s creditors took place, and from the statement shown, there would appear a surplus of £186,324, but it must be observed that owing to the absence of any precise or recent estimate of what the Mauritius debts and estates are likely to yield, the total of those assets (£557,149) is put down without deduction. Upon this total it may be feared, looking at the result of such realizations of property as have lately been made in the island, the ultimate difference will prove enormous, and it must also be noticed that a liability of £347,929 exists on the part of Reid, Irving, & Co., on bills of exchange, which, although the firm are not primarily responsible for them, may, through the default of the other parties whose names they bear, involve considerable loss. The liabilities on "bills receivable" are, moreover, extremely large, and it is lo be apprehended that the loss on that head (£32,583) may, ftom the disasters now continually occurring, ultimately prcve to have been under-estimated. A feeling prevails that the estate will fall very far short of anything like payment in full. The following resolutions were passed; yiz: — " That it is the opinion of the creditors that it will be for the benefit of all parties interested in the estate of Messrs. Reid, Irving, & Co., that the property should be for the present administered by the partners under inspection. "That Mr. Boring, Mr. Blyth, and Mr. M'Chlery, be requested to act as inspectors in the affairs of Messrs. Reid, Irving, & Co., with power to employ an accountant if they shall see fit, and to report from time to time, to the creditors as they shall see occasion ; and further, that a monthly account shall be made out for the inspection of the creditors during the liquidation. "W. Cotton, Chairman." We fear the failure of this firm will be felt over a wide spread in India, from the circumstance of a large number of their small bills having beeu negotiated at very long dates. On Monday, Oct. 11th, a heavy fall took place in Consols; it was assigned to the aspect of the revenue returns, and the announcement that the French loan would be adjudicated in November. Money on the Stock Exchange was at 8 per cent. Private letters from America, by the steamer Washington, brought intelligence of several failures at New York: and that of James and William Motley of London, Manchester warehousemen, with liabilities extending to £80,000, closed the day. Tuesday commenced with comparative quietude; a slight advance in the Funds, and an easiness of money in the Stock Exchange, buoyed up many with delusive hopes. A third meeting of the parties interested in the affairs of Sanderson & Co., took place, at which it transpired that the bills run off since the meeting of the 28th September amounted to about £350,000, and that these, upon the whole, have been well met. At the date of suspension the amount of bills running was £1,725,000, which has been reduced to about £1,000,000, and which, before the end .of the year, will be further reduced to about £220,000. The following if a minute of the proceedings: — . "At a meeting of the j>arti«* iotsctatsd in ifhjt affair* of Messrs. Sanderson held

at their office, King- William-street, London, October 12,4847, by adjournment from the 28th of September last, present, Samuel Jones Loyd, Esq., in the chair, " Resolved, that the progress made in the further realization of the assets of Messrs. Sanderson & Co.'s concern, appears to be satisfactory, and that this meeting be adjourned to Friday, the 12th November next, at one o'clock, at this place. "(Signed) S. J. Loyd, Chairman."