second
buyer's note for the money, which, like that of the first, went at once
to the bank. This transaction was frequently repeated six or eight
times, before the cattle found a _bona fide_ purchaser; and it was no
uncommon thing, to find paper in the market to the amount of 1800l. or
2000l., the only representative for which was the hundred head of cattle
originally sold by the settler; the whole of the parties concerned
being, with the exception of the first seller and the last buyer, mere
men of straw. When the six months expired, not a single bill of the six
or eight negotiated, was taken up, excepting, perhaps, the last one: all
the others had to be renewed; and it was the forcing the payment of such
bills, that ruined so many people, and ultimately shook the credit of
every bank in Australia.

The credit system also led many mercantile men into speculations which
they never would have entered into under a wholesome system of trade.
From these many serious losses resulted, which have led to ruinous
failures. Any man with a hundred pounds in his pocket, could get credit
for a thousand; and numbers of adventurers of all descriptions, taking
advantage of the times, opened stylish shops well-filled with goods
bought on credit, carried on a flourishing trade till within a few days
of their bills falling due, and then decamped, leaving their
unfortunate and silly creditors to get paid from the wreck of the stock
left in the shop. I knew an auctioneer who played this nefarious trick,
leaving his creditors _minus_ the enormous sum of 70,000l. He did not,
however, long retain his ill-gotten wealth: how he got rid of it, I do
not know; but I found him two years ago in Singapore, where he kept a
small grog-shop, and lived in great wretchedness; and I have since met
with him knocking about the streets of Macao, a disgrace to his country
in a foreign settlement. The credit system ruined two thirds of the
respectable auctioneers in Sydney, and upset the Australian Auction
Company, absorbing every shilling of its paid-up capital.

In addition to the evils inflicted on this Colony by these main causes,
great losses were sustained by settlers through their becoming shippers
of their own wool. At the time I speak of, wool was worth, in Sydney,
from 2s. 1d. to 2s. 2d. per pound, and, in England, some 6d. or 8d.
more. These high rates would not satisfy some settlers, who foolishly
took an advance upon their clips, letting them go h