The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-11-17 00:00:00

TITE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

NEW ZEALAND

Captain Fitzroy, the late Governor of New Zealand,
has published a., small pamphlet on the condition and
prospects of that colony, from which we make the follow-
ing extract. As the= subject is most important for many
reasons, we intend is our next to give the gallant Captain
an opportunity of explaining more fully the course of po-
licy he felt it his duty•to pursue there. In the meantime,
we give the subjoined answer of Captain Fitzroy to the
charge that he issued debentures to the disparagement of
the usual circulating medium !--
" The-subject requiring the primary attention of the le-
gislative council was finance.- At the beginning of this
year (1844) the local government was twenty-four thou-
sand pounds in debt ; the revenue being then estimated at
about twenty thousand pounds. All salaries and or-
dinary current payments were several months in arrear ;
there was no prospect of the revenue amounting even to
two-thirds of the estimated indispensable expenditure :
the establishment was reduced to that which was author-
ised by the Secretary of State in a despatch received just
at the close of the previous year (1843); the governor was
strictly prohibited from drawing on the British treasury :
and no loan could be raised.

"By reducing the establishment of government to an
extreme much below what was absolutely necessary for
carrying on the daily public business, a less expenditure
might have been ensured, but, not only at a loss of effi-
ciency, almost to the disabling of the local government,
but to the extreme distress of many official persons who
had been induced to leave their public situations else-
where to form part of the establishment of New Zealand,
where they had been obliged to build •houses and settle
their families, at no small expense.
In order to carry on the government until assistance
and directions could be received from England ; to re-
lieve the creditors of government from distress ; and to
keep numerous families from extreme privation, some
from actually starving ; it was decided to issue notes, or
debentures, bearing five per cent. interest after the expi-
ration of one year; and as these debentures were at first
refused by several speculators, and therefore seemed
likely to be much depreciated; they were made a legal
tender. It should be noticed that this paper currency
was not intended to be permanent; it was intended to
serve instead of coin during a very limited period, not
exceeding two years,—before which it was probable that
some arrangement would be made by the same govern-
ment for their withdrawal from circulation. These de-
bentures enabled the government to carry on its functi-
ons, and saved an extremity of disorder and distress
which can hardly be appreciated by persons in an old
country. Their principle has been much condemned by
some theorists (who reason about a young struggling co-
lony without capital, as if it were really circumstanced
like any portion of the parent state—supported by banks
and capitalists); but since their beneficial effects were
practically felt, and fully appreciated by those who might
have been actually starved without them, the objections
of theorists may be less regarded. As there were then
no exports, the colony was drained of its small stock of
specie by payments for goods and the usual necessaries of
life; and scarcely any circulating medium remained ex-
cept notes of We Union Bank of Australia.
" But as the issue of paper money was in direct contra-
vention of the governor's instructions, of course he was
prepared to bear the consequences. There have been
many occasions, it will not be denied, on which deviations
from instructions have been productive of public benefit,
however indefensible according to a general rule which
must be maintained. Whether this was one of such oc-
casions, the wretched state of the colonists in New Zea-
land may spew. Impending ruin, and actual starvation,
threatened the greater number of the working classes, and
many others, at Auckland, who depended on the govern-
ment expenditure. No assistance from England could be
expected in less than a year.—No money could be ob-
tained by the government, in the colony, or from Sydney,
because no person would accept bills drawn by the gover-
nor without the express sanction of the Secretary of
State.

"The practical effect of these debentures was not only
the removal of actual want, but the promotion of much
industry and general improvement. Instead of a com-
plete stagnation, as at the beginning of 1844, activity and
abundant employment soon prevailed. Auckland and its
vicinity improved rapidly, and an export trade began.
" The necessity under which the principal holders of
debentures lay to employ them in the colony, and as
speedily as possible, lest there should be any deterioration
of value, induced those persons to buy up gum, flax,
timber, or copper, or other native produce, to be extorted
as remittances to their correspondents instead of money.
Some built small vessels ; others improved their landed
property by fences and better buildings. The results
were conspicuously beneficial."

AWFUL DISCOVERY.

(From the Westminster Review.)

One serene evening in the middle of August, 1775, Cap-
tair► Warrens, the master of the Greenland, whale-ship,
found himself becalmed among an immense number of ice-
bergs, in about 77 degrees of north latitude. On one side,
and within a mile of his vessel, these were of immense
height and closely wedged together, and a succession of
snow-covered peaks appeared behind each other as far as
the eye could reach, showing that the ocean was com-
pletely blocked up in that quarter, and that he had proba-
bly been so for a long period of time. Captain Warrens
did not feel altogether satisfied with his situation ; but
there being no wind he could not move either one way or
the other and he therefore kept a strict watch, knowing
that he would be safe as long as the icebergs continued in
their respective places.
About midnight. tlic_wind rose to a sale. seem-nit..rile&
by thick showers of snow, while a succession of tremen-
d, us thundering, grinding, and crashing noises, gave fear-
ful evidence that the ice was in motion. The vessel re-
ceived violent shocks every moment ; for the haziness of
the atmosphere prevented those on board from discovering
in what direction the open water lay, or if there actually
was any at all on either side of them. The night was
spent in tacking as often as any cause of danger happened
to present itself, and in the morning the storm abated,
and Capt. Warrens found, to his great joy, that his ship
bad not sustained any serious injury. He remarked with
surprise that the accumulated icebergs, which had on the
preceding evening formed an impenetrable barrier, had
been separated and disarranged by the wind, and that in
one place a canal of open sea wound its course among
them as far as the eye could discern.
It was two miles beyond the entrance of this canal that
a ship made its appearance about noon. The sun shone
brightly at the time, and a gentle breeze blew from the
north. At first some intervening icebergs prevented Cap-
tain Warrens from distinctly seeing anything but her
masts; but he was struck with the strange manner in
which her sails were disposed, and with the dismantled
aspect of her yards and rigging. She continued to go be-
fore the wind for a few furlongs, and then grounding upon
the low iceberg, remained motionless.
Captain Warrens' curiosity was so much excited that
he immediately leaped into his boat with several seamen,
and rowed towards her. On approaching he observed that
her hull was miserably weather-beaten, and not a soul ap-
peared on the deck, which was covered with snow to a
considerable depth. He hailed her crew several times,
but no answer was returned. Previous to stepping on
board, an open port-hole near the main chains caught his
eye, and, on looking into it, he perceived a man reclining
back in a chair, with writing materials on a table before
him, but the feebleness of the light made everything very
indistinct. The party went upon deck, and having re-
moved the hatchway, which they found closed, they de-
scended to the cabin. They first came to the apartment
which Captain Warrens viewed through the port-hole. A
tremor seized him as he entered it. Its inmate retained
his former position, and seemed to be insensible to
strangers. He was found to be a corse, and a green damp
mould had covered his cheeks and forehead, and veiled his
open eye-balls. He had a pen in his-hand, and a log-book
lay before him, the last sentence in whose unfinished page
ran thus :—" Nov. 14, 1762. We have now been enclosed
in the ice 17 days. The fire went out yesterday, and our
master has been trying ever since to kindle it again with-
out success. His wile died this morning. There is no
relief—" _ _ .

Captain Warrens and his seamen hurried from the spot
without uttering a word. On entering the principal cabin
the first object that attracted their attention was the dead
body of a ternale reclining on a bed in an attitude of deep
interest and attention. Her countenance retained the
freshness of life, and a contraction of the limb showed

that her form was inanimate. Seated on the floor was
the corpse of an apparently young man, holding a steel
in cue hand and a flint in the other, as if in the act of
striking fire upon some tinder which lay beside him. In
the fore part of the vessel several sailors were found
lying dead in their berths, and the body of a boy was
crouched at the bottom of the gangway stairs. Neither
provisions nor fuel could be discovered anywhere; but
Captain Warrens was prevented, by the superstitious
prejudices of his seamen, from examining the vessel as
minutely as he wished to have done. He therefore carried
away the log-book already mentioned. and returned to his
own shin, and immediately steered to the southward,
deeply impressed with the awful example which he had
just witnessed of the danger of navigating the Polar seas
in high northern latitudes.

On returning to England he made various inquiries
respecting vessels that had disappeared in r.n unknown
way, and, by comparing the results of those with the in-
formation which was afforded by the written documents in
his possession, he ascertained the name and history of the
imprisoned ship and of her unfortunate master, and found
that she had been frozen thirteen years previous to the
time of his discovering her among the ice.