VICTORIAN CRISIS.

Southland Times, Issue 544, 20 August 1866, Page 6

VICTORIAN CRISIS.

The commercial panic in England has had a rebounding effect in Victoria. The Banks have, under instructions, put the " screw" on with a strong hand, and many who, with ordinary accommodation, could have weathered the storm, have been compelled to succumb. The Age, 10th August, in a leader upon this subject, says : — " It is long since we have had such a list of failures as have been recorded during the last few weeks. The stoppages which have occurred are, beyond doubt, such stoppages as ought to be compelled ; and yet, even conceding this, we are disposed to question the wisdom of selecting the present as the season for making a mercantile clearance. If report speak truly, the stringency of the banks has been as sudden as it has been severe. Houses of real stability have been compelled to change their accounts from bank to bank in order to secure the maintenance of the amount of discounts to which they they had been accustomed, and were, no doubt, reasonably entitled. Accommodation has been restricted, occasionally, in an arbitrary manner, calculated to create the distrust which is in the interest of the entire community to avert. The same paper in an able article maintains the stability of the mining interest, pointing out that very little accommodation has been given to mining associations, while a large sum of banking capital has been locked by the liberal advances made on pastoral security. It says : — " Looking at the question from a purely financial point of view, it may perhaps be gratifying to find that, at a time of possible monetary disturbance, the banks have so little locked-up in advances to mining companies. But, again, we trace negative evidences of that over liberal leaning to squatting securities, of which we have oft^n had occasion to accuse the banks. The advances upon stock stations and pastoral securities have been roughly estimated at three millions sterling. Contrast this with the paltry a-lv&ncea to mining companies. The mining interest contributes the main portion of our exports, and its product ail passes through the handrf of the banks, whose profits largely depend upon their manipulation of bullion.