NEW ZEALAND SPECTATOR AND Cook's Strait Guardian. Wednesday, December 8, 1852.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 767, 8 December 1852, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND SPECTATOR AND Cook's Strait Guardian. Wednesday, December 8, 1852.

The recent arrivals have furnished us with a few items of news to which we may briefly advert. Some of those who left this place for the " diggings" at Port Phillip have returned in the Tory, and letters have been received from others. So far as we are informed their general tenor is discouraging, gold of course is to be found, but the number of gold seekers is prodigiously increased, as is also the price of provisions and all the necessaries of life, so that while the chances of success in the lottery have greatly diminished from the increased numbers wh,o have embarked in it, the expenses attendant on the search have advanced in a corresponding ratio, and they find from dearly bought experience they would have acted more wisely to have " let well alone," and have remained in New Zealand. Instead of allowing their minds to be disturbed by these golden dreams, we believe the settlers of Zealand will reap a'suie as well as a large golden harvest in their timber, potatoes, and other produce, for which a good remunerative market is now open, and the demand for which must be constantly increasing, as each arrival from Europe adds fresh accessions to the numbers of gold seekers. By the Matilda we have received, via Taranaki, Auckland papers to the 12th ult. We have extracted such particulars as relate to the gold found in the Coromandel district, (the only local news they contain) from which it will be seen that the discovery has not as yet proved of any very great importance, as it is not absolutely determined that gold exists in sufficient quantities to repay the great labour of getting it. Nevertheless a beginning had been made which may possibly lead to encouraging results. The principal amount of information to be gleaned from the Otago Witness relating to that settlement is to be found in the advertisements, where we observe a strong protest in a petition to Sir George Grey now in the course of signature against an attempt to raise the wind by an issue of shinplasters, in the shape of one pound promissory notes payable at two months after date by a private firm. This is an attempt to interfere with the circulating medium of that settlement, which appears to us of a most objectionable character, and which if not checked is likely to be attended with serious consequences. The Editor of the Witness professes to regard it as " purely a private affair," and considers the great majority of the settlers, who differ from him on this as they do on most other questions which arise, in their community, and who justly look upon it as a matter of public im- \ portance, io be quite mistaken. But if;

one person is allowed to, put his promises to pay into circulation, each man in business may claim the same privilege, and we have only to suppose , this plan generally acted upon, to conceive the confusion which would be caused by such worthless paper, and the consequent injury which would be inflicted on the credit of the settlement. We all know the mischief caused by Captain Fitzroy's paper currency, . and the depreciation which it suffered even though issued on the credit of the Government, and received by it in payment of- Customs' duties. This serious mistake led to his immediate recall, and all parties at home were loud in their condemnation of his debentures as the worst evil that could possibly befal a young community. But this appears to be the very worst shape an inconvertible paper currency could assume, and we are not surprised the men in business at Otago should set their faces against it, and consider it an intolerable grievance.

The following is the Otago Memorial to the Governor on the recent attempt to establish in that settlement an inconvertible currency to which we have referred above. To his Excellency Sir George Grey, X.C.8., Governor-in-Chief of New Zealand, &c, &c The bumble petition of the undersigned settlers in Otago shewetb,-r-That your petitioners view with dismay an attempt at creating a circulating medium by Messrs. Macandrew & Co., merchants, in Otago, whereby one pound promissory notes (one of which is forwarded to your Excellency) are being substituted for cash payments, and which your petitioneis think may be the means of destroying that confidence in mercantile transactions which has hitherto existed in Otago. Had the issue of notes been marie by a constituted Banking Company, with a subscribed capital, and under proper regulations, your petitioners would not have been under any alarm ; but the precedent now adopted may he carried out by other parties in the settlement, thereby creating a false capital ; and, should such prove to be the case, they conceive the ruin of the settlement to be inevitable. Your petitioners, moreover, consider that this innovation by Messrs. Macandrew & Co. on the currency of Otago is closely akin to the Truck sjstem — the baneful effects of which are well known in the home country, and which has been universally condemned. Your petitioners are not aware whether the issuing of such paper currency is contrary to law, or any Ordinance of New ZealanJ. Your petitioners would, bowtvtr, earnestly beseech yonr Excellency to adopt such measmes without delay' as wouM put an end to so intoleialile a grievance being inflicted on the settlers of Otago. And your petitioners will ever pray, &c.