Page:Australia, from Port Macquarie to Moreton Bay.djvu/152

  of the community; and the absurd ideas entertained respecting the value of land, and town allotments, &c. which induced the deluded colonists to pay, for solitary wastes which they had never seen, sums so large, that they are now astonished at their former folly, since the present reaction has aroused them from their golden dreams. This rage for speculation was very much encouraged by the loose un-English system of transacting business in New South Wales; long extended credit at high interest was readily accorded on the slightest security, whilst the directors of several of the colonial banks mutually afforded to each other, and their friends, the most unwarrantable accommodation in discounting bills, to the exclusion of many bills much safer than their own, but drawn and accepted by parties unconnected with bank directors. The disgraceful circumstances which have been brought to light in the late investigations into the affairs of two colonial banks which have now closed, are, in themselves, quite sufficient to prove the great share the banks have had in producing the present monetary crisis. As to the land mania, it was in a great measure produced by the system of selling Crown lands by public auction, and thereby exciting an unfortunate spirit of competition, which drained the colonists of that money which ought to have been employed in the more legitimate objects of colonization, such as agriculture, vineyards, &c. Old settlers and newly arrived emigrants, merchants, and mechanics, all