THE FINANCIAL SITUATION.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 961, 19 May 1879, Page 2

THE FINANCIAL SITUATION.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE OAAIARU MAIL. Sir,—l trust that you will accord me the favor of a short splice in your columns in the service of public opinion and liberty of the subject, for the purpose of expressing a few conclusions on the financial situation. To come to the point at once, we are smarting from the results of undue speculation in land, and an unprecedentedly bad grain season. The first has been brought about by an extraordinary system in banking which has allowed enormous overdrafts on free hold securities for the purpose of enabling their infatuated proprietors to purchass parcels of land in various parts of the Colony, giving as a reason for doing so the certainty of land increasing in value, and the probability of the realisation of a large profit, in any case, as far as they were concerned. After this comes the lock-out, in which all parties Buffer,

except the usurer, who of course is secured. Of the two courses open to break the lock one is a direct and vigorous exercise of public independence in the refusal of bank currency, and the acceptation only of sterling money. The other is the establishment by the Government of a Crown, bank, and, in connection therewith a mint. Such a course would save the Colony large sums of money, besides holding a check upon the speculative propensities of our present joint stock bankers.—l am, &c., Liberty.