New Zealand Times. PUBLISHED DAILY.) SATURDAY, DECEMBER 23.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 4916, 23 December 1876, Page 2

New Zealand Times. PUBLISHED DAILY.) SATURDAY, DECEMBER 23.

The New Zealand correspondent of theQueevslander heads his letter " Auckland," and aims at attaining the acme of untruth in his communications. He iB above the paltry consideration of time,.and therefore what he writes appears without date; but this circumstance doubtless has its advantages, as it enables him to frame his falsehoods without any fear of being tied down to a particular day, week, or month in .their correction. In his communication to our Brisbane contemporary, which appears r in the issue of that paper for November 25th, the correspondent under notice, pictures New Zealand as passing through a commercial crisis of a fearful nature. He represents'the whole colony as being in a state of poverty, general and individual; says: that, tradesmen are breaking up inall parts of it—not in any one in particular; and ''state's I '.that- probably in 'Auckland the depression is least' felt, although y there ' have been numerous some, of them very heavy ones. Our capitalists and monied men, are described as''realising eyeryasset for, hard cash," and as ' declining to invest a sixpence: upon any enterprise. .Now not even; the most rabid politician who: for party purposes has" depreciated the public credit of New Zealand would father 'statements such as the'abovel It .is quite ( true,..that trade'; is not so generally flourishing as it has been.'at antecedent of quite exceptional prosperity; but it is still quite sound and healthy, and on all sides are evidences of a people living in comfort, and amidst a progress;in trade, business,: and all that goes to,enrich and help a nation, that cannot, we dare aver, be equalled ;in any other British colony. • Because merchants arids others every now and'theii seek!the protection of the' Bankruptcy Court, as they havei'' : done 1 aiid ; will continue to do in all colonies, it is'simply' untrue to say that business men are bankrupt 'everywhere. As'.' a,. matter of fact,; there has been during the past year , a .smaller proportion of commercial failures in New ; Zealand-than in'..< .any , of the Australian; colonies, anct yet who would assert that tradesmen were: t breaking all over "Victoria, New South Wales, and Queensland, or. draw such a'picture of either colony as,the correspondent of the Queenslanderliaa drawn of New Zealand? i ; '.';■', S Fortunately the correspondence under notice contains certain statements as to plain' matters of fact,••'"which are so palpably false that they will; prevent other portions of the letter being be-

lieyed. Thus, for instance, it is confidently asserted' that in Otago on abolition coming into effect there would be a determined resistance to the General Government i taking possession 'of the property and belongings of the province. A very brief laps'e of time has so completely • disproved this prophecy that people even at a distance and unacquainted with the 1 circumstance of New Zealand will be ; able to see that the correspondent of-, the- Queenslander is utterly unreliable. But this will not probably prevent that gentleman from continuing to write, for he ' evidently does not permit himself to be hampered by any such paltry consideration as might be dictated by truth; Thus, of what he is pleased to call the great dispute between the Superintendent of Auckland and Otago and the General Government, he' coolly says that the Marquis of Normanby is unable to arbitrate in it. Now there never was a great dispute, nor was his Excellency the Governor called upon to arbitrate in anything. Sir George Grey and Mr. Maoandrew certainly did rave about resistance to the'law ; but the government. took not the slightest notice of them. The whole of their threats ended in smoke, and. the Governor simply pursued the tenor of that administrative way which he and other constitutional Governors follow from day to day. These being simple and notorious, facts, people will merely smile at the correspondent's vaticination that in the,crisis, which did not come, the Home Government would be compelled to send a representative from each of the colonies to adjust matters. Events will perhaps by this time have shown the Queenslander how very mendacious, to say the least of it,, its correspondent has been. The only pity is that a first-class journal of wide cir-culation-should admit such correspondence into its columns.