The Evening Mail. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE NEW ZEALAND AGRICULTURIST. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1878.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 809, 15 November 1878, Page 2

The Evening Mail. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE NEW ZEALAND AGRICULTURIST. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1878.

The late commercial calamity in Scotland has had the ell'ect of creating a great amount I of commercial uncertainty. The failure of! the City of Glasgow Bank has shaken some of the frail local institutions that were existing upon its liberality and shattered others. Upon such the news that the goose that had been laying the golden egg had become exhausted fell like a thunderbolt. This would not have much mattered much, except that, so far as they were concerned, it would have cleared the commercial atmosphere by ridding it of unhealthy component parts calculated to breed commercial disease. But the news was sent by cablegram to this Colony, and busy rumor commenced its inane prattle that the failure of this Bank would seriously alt'ect the position of the New Zealand and Australian Land Company. Lovers of excitement brandished the weapons of commercial suicide by building rumor upon rumor. A section of the Press clutched at the sweet morsel, and, mixing with it another ingredient—the appearance of signs of a belief in the instability of one of our largest local banking institutions—prepared it to be swallowed whole by its readers. But the ail air has not developed into the full-blown panic for which alarmists seemed to crave. The lirm of James Morton & C0.,0f Glasgow, a pari silica! growth on the City of Glasgow Bank, lias met with the fate of other local firms thatdepended upon that financial institution for support. .Beyond this, what actual injury has been done to the Colony, excepting the tightening of the Knglish money market, which, there being no cause for its continuance, soon relaxed, and became as easy as ever? If some people had only once tasted of the bitter fruits of a genuine panic they would not so unwisely and thoughtlessly use their utmost endeavours to create one. What: gave color to the fears of alarmists was the knowledge that there was some connection between the City of Glasgow Bank and the New Zealand and Australian Land Company, and, of course, that connection was put in its most unfavorable light. Labeling under the hallucination that the doom of this Land Company was fixed, alarmists acted as though they already saw the Colony deserted, and its commercial institutions crumbling with decay. Even had the relations existing between the Bank and the Land Company been so intimate that the failure of the one would entail the dissolution of the other, the Colony would but feel the occasion as lightly as a ship does a spray. With fair play, New Zealand, possessing within herself as she does to so eminent a degree the elements of success, must maintain the foremost position amongst the Australasian eolnniea. But the resources of New Zealand are being developed to a considerable extent by the aid of British capital, and anything that would tend to frighten that from our shores must be viewed as"a calamity. The. supposition, however, that the Land Company was involved in its ruin, and that the sale of its lands is evidence of this, is a mistake which has arisen through people only knowing suiticient of the Company's business to lead them into a fog. In the light of a few facts which we are in a position to ad.dr.ee, the whole calamity is noi nearly so direful as was at first supposed, ami the position of the Company is no mw affected by it than is that of any other linn entirely unconnected with the institution that was the cause of it. We are borne out in this view by results, Where are there any signs of the Colony having been dealt ~>vijn {lie lightest blow? Some point to the sale and announced sales e,f ihe Company's ostites as evidence i-ii-'t the ramiiicatinns o: the Ban!; i.>. this Colony are' important. Over a year ago it was ie.--e.lve.l to sell these 'estates : not because- they were not paying--for what with the increase in value iVou; shillings to almost as many pounds and th. profit "derivable from working them, tin Company had every reason to be satisiie 1 - but because the portions that they resolve. 1 , to sell had become so valuable for agri ::iltuial purposes that it would pay the Company !,--::er to sell than to retain th ■>.■• to be used for pasi-.oral purposes. According to some the Company i;e.d received la ;•:,'< advance,) from the City of Glasgow Ban!; which they would now he called upon to pay promptly, and their estates were, being sold to enable them to do this. This partakes of the falsity of most rumors. The Company has received, advances from the Bank—thus far rumor is correct ; but there is; nothing strange in a company using the capital of a bank : it would be stranger if it di.l not. These advances are for long terms : and it is not in the power of the liquidators to demand payment one day before the due dates. There is another fact that will .strengthen our view of the matter : It is not the intention of the Company to force their properties into the market in large, blocks ; but to oiler portions of them for sale as the demand for land arises ; and, more, they will l!0t sell any portions of their properties at all if they ennnot realise a price equal to that which could have been realised about a year ago. when the Company first resolved to sell. This does not bear out t :C idea of a compulsory sale ; nor is there any connection between the failure of Moirrox, of Glasgow, and the announced disposal of the Company's lands. True, Monro* was a large shareholder in the Company ; hut the trustees in his estate cannot take any action that could affect the stability of the Company in the smallest degree. We have now got over the worst, effects arising out of tho failure of the City of Glasgow Hank, which arose from suspicions of evil that were as remote as the horizon.