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Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3198, 28 September 1881, Page 2

The state of tbe money market at home i* thu* referred to by a Trade Review received by last mail:—"The Bank of England rate -still remains at 2£ per cent., but. outside good bills are down considerably under that rate, and it is reported that bankers have loaned their balances to bili brokers even down to If per cent. This proves that the amount of floating capital is far beyond any present want, while at tbe same time the profit got from these extremely low rates is so small, that discounters are extremely careful as to tbe bills tbey take." With respect to freight charges between London and the colonies, the same journal says:—"The Australian and New Zealand trades have been very busy throughout tbe month, perhaps this has not been a little accelerated as far as Sydney is concerned by the agitation that has taken place in respect to freight. It is doubtless well known to Colonial importers that some time ago a tariff, which was in fact a very fair one, was arranged between ship brokers and merchants, at which goods were to be carried with the proviso that, if any new ship broker entered tbe trade, the contracting brokers were at once to give merchants as low a rate as they could obtain elsewhere. About a month ago an outside broker put on a ship for Sydney at lower rates than current. The consequence of which was that the contracting brokers dropped their rates in the endeavor to run tbe outside ship off, but in this they have not been successful, and the consequence is that the merchants have been shipping at very low rates, so low m some instances as 10s per ton for measurement, but in consequence of the excessive quantity of weight in the market, the rates for metals have been much better maintained. The irregularity caused by this state of things will not do much good to anybody, for immediately some arrangement is come to with the offending broker, we may look to see old rates established. Rates for Melbourne, Adelaide, and Brisbane are maintained at the contract rates."