LONDON LETTER.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1489, 23 November 1878, Page 2

LONDON LETTER.

[eeom oue own coeeespondent.]

London, October 10,

I have not this month, I am glad to say, to record the occurrence of any such disasters as those which were narrated in my last letter, and about which I shall have a few further observations to make in the course of the present one, but although Death has not descended “at one fell swoop” upon hundreds of households, we have just suffered a calamity which will cause severe distress to a large number of persons and in which New Zealand is particularly interested. I refer to the failure of the City of Glasgow Bank, a largo concern which although it bore a local name had business connections with the remotest parts of the world. Perhaps a very few of the wisest people, unfortunately those whose wisdom of the head is, as the proverb tells us, is shown by the stillness of the tongue, had seen for some years that a reckless course of trading was being indulged in, and one of those whose tongues was loosened by the failure of the Bank, as speedily as in the case of the man on whom the miracle was performed, as recorded by St. Mark, has not only told us how he sold out his shares years ago when he perceived the danger, but has suggested that a fund should be raised for the relief of the distressed shareholders, backing up his suggestion with the offer of a donation of one thousand guineas. For though of course the customers of the Bank and the depositors—and these two classes had to their credit sums amounting to over eight millions sterling—will be put to considerable inconvenience from a want of ready money, yet many of these will be able to find some relief in the accommodation that is being afforded to them by other Banks. But the proprietors of the collapsed Bank stand in quite a different position. There are about thirteen hundred shareholders, and a large number of them are widows and single women who depended on the dividends paid on the shares that had been bequeathed to them by trusting relatives. The liability of the shareholders to pay all the claims that may bo made on the Bank is nominally unlimited, but I fear that their means of payment will not be found to be so elastic. Of course the crash came with surprising swiftness. I find that some men in the city, who know the most secret of the mysteries of the large discount houses, were aware for several days before that the City of Glasgow Bank was struggling against a fate which the recent rapid rise of the Bank of England rate of discount had precipitated, but upon the world in general the news fell with surprise and dismay, for people feared that it might be only the precursor of a series of failures, and already several commercial establishments have been involved in the ruin. The fatal hour at length came. After the hank was closed, the managers went to Edinburgh to confer with the representatives of other big Scotch banks. They spent the whole evening in the consideration of the matter, but no further accommodation could be obtained than a promise that the circulation of the then issued notes should not be stopped, (it may be necessary to remind some of my readers that the local one pound note is the great medium of circulation in Scotland, where gold docs not much prevail.) Accordingly, about midnight a communication was sent to the newspapers requesting them to publish the annoumement that the bank would not open the doors on the morrow morning. The accounts are now being investigated, and a special meeting of the shareholders will be held in the course of a few days; but in the meantime, without waiting for an arithmetical statement of the case, the rough extent of tire disaster is known, as well as most of the causes which led to it. Unsound concerns have been bolstered up, and enormous advance:, made in property that cannot bo realised. I said above that people in New Zealand were much concerned in this failure, for it scorns that a large sum of the City of Glasgow Bank’s money is locked up in shares of the New Zealand and Australian Laud Company. An Edinburgh correspondent (ells me that tin’s company owns some ot the best land in New Zealand, properly which he describes from personal experience as being rich corn and grass growing land, equal to anything iu

Europe, and having a regular and high established value on the spot. I learn from another source that the following are the holdings in the New Zealand and Australian Land Company, as at the beginning of the present year of persons connected with the City of Glasgow Bank. This Land Company, it may bo stated, has a capital of £2,500,000, of which £1,500,000 is in ordinary and £1,000,000 in preference shares. It will be seen that the total holdings of the persons undermentioned amount to nearly £2,000,000 sterling

From another source I learn that the bank has advanced upwards of two millions sterling to their people. The value of their land in New Zealand, which is admitted on all hands to be of the first quality, is estimated at £1,300,000, and the balance of the advance is covered by wool. lam assured that in this case the bank will lose nothing. The only question seems to be how long will it take to realise this security. Of course, if the shares are bought by other persons, and especially by persons who are personally interested in the colony, the process would be a speedy one, but at present nobody knows what course will be pursued. The shareholders in the bank entertain a strong desire to resuscitate their concerns, but their accountants have declared such a step to be impracticable’ Nor are the customers and depositors willing to grant any grace to an institution which had not only inconvenienced them but has tarnished the fair fame of the Scottish banking system. They are for liquidation out and out, and as quickly as possible. Amongst the favorite irons which Sir Julius Vogel keeps in the fire is one on the subject of telegraphic reform, and certainly in the United Kingdom there is ample room for any amount of criticism. Since I last wrote he has published another long letter on the subject, but it was ill-timed, and has fallen flat on the public ; still I commend him for agitating the matter, although my experience does not lead me to quite the same conclusions. One of his points is that the English use too many words in their messages, but we cannot be acquainted with the difficulty felt by most minds in deciphering a too condensed phrase. “A word to the wise,” we are told, “is sufficient for them,” yet it maylneed many words to convey the same idea to those who are not so clever. Sir Julius may see clearly the meaning of half-a-dozen syllables from Sir George Grey, but they would not convey the same extent of idea to another mind. The code system of telegraphy has proved much more useful, but its use is greatly restricted. On one point, however, Sir Julius has indirectly raised up a great amount of public opinion in his favor, viz., his suggsstion about the delivery of messages. Although our whole telegraphic business is in the hands of the Post Office, yet a largo number of village offices have not wires fixed to them, and hence in a good many country places the nearest station is so far away that a shilling message costs three or four shillings for delivery. Whenever the subject of telegraphic improvement engages the attention of the authorities in New Zealand I recommended them not to adopt the English post office system which is by no means equal to the wants of our age. Sir Julius, however, can furnish some hints that would prove valuable with modificstion.

I have been favoured with a proof copy of the report to bo submitted to the next meeting of the Society for Promoting Cnristian Knowledge, and I am sure the subscribers to that valuable institution will be gratified to learn how well New Zealand in general, and Christchurch in particular is progressing in one of the greatest of good works. This report states that your town is the most busy in the diocese for carrying on the work of church and school building. Ten new churches in Christchurch and one sebooi building are reported to have been taken in hand, with aid from this Society. In Auckland eight new churches were in course of erection when the committee received their last advices, and in Nelson six. The report also mentions that amongst the ten new cases of church building in Christchurch diocese four are owing to the energetic action of one clergyman who had already been instrumental in building two others. In the case, it adds, of one of the six churches to be built in Nelson diocese, the people had already so strained their own means that a grant of £25 decided whether there should or should not be a new church. To some, perhaps, this paragraph may seem very much like carrying coals to Newcastle, but I only venture to ■write it to remind you that the good works done in New Zealand are not mere matters of colonial consequence, but are felt in England to be matters which act and react on a widely extended work. Not only is sympathy called forth by such exertions as have been made in your diocese, but the very fact of their having been made induces the Society at home to make renewed and corresponding efforts, both in Now Zealand and in other quarters. The Coroner’s inquiry into the loss of the saloon steamer Princess Alice, and the drowning (it is now ascertained), of at least 650 people in the Thames, is still progressing, the whole matter having been fought out with a pertinacity which is quite remarkable, considering that no pecuniary issue is involved in the present proceedings, and that when they have ended the whole matter must be reviewed by a Court composed of technical men appointed by the Board of Trade. But nearly everybody who can be found to have escaped from the Princess Alice, and almost everyone who was on board the Bywell Castle, the largo screw collier which cut her in halves, has been examined, and the evidence has been to a groat extent a tedious repetition. But I think it lias established this fact beyond a doubt, that the pleasure steamer was returning homo, in what to ordinary eyes was a dark night—though those who are accustomed to being on the river say it was a clear one—laden with nearly a thousand men, women, and children, a number far too largo, it seems to mo for such a vessel, though within the limits which the law allows —when an error of the man at the wheel turned her suddenly to starboard, instead of keeping on her original course hard-a-port, and in a moment she was so nearly straight across the bows of the Bywell Castle, and so close that nothing could have prevented the stem of the large iron vessel from penetrating almost to the middle of her engine room. This dreadful catastrophe has b;;cu the means of evoking such an amount of British charity as has rarely been known. The distress in some quarters of London can scarcely bo pictured, and I hesitate to say how many infanta have been left not alone orphans but perfectly without relatives. Not, however, without friends, for besides the institutions whoso duty it is to provide for such cases, many private persons have nobly volunteered to adopt these children. Besides this, the British public bus subscribed nearly £50,000 for the relief of material distress, and judging by the proportion that has been already distributed, not much of a surplus will bo left in a short J,ime.

X was also able just briclly to mention in xny lust that a dreadful colliery explosion —I am afraid L said in South Wales, but it should have been in Monmouthshire—had swept away nearly three hundred men in a moment. The first aeecouuts were by no means exaggerated, though none of the victims have been, or ever will bo brought to the surface, it was soon found that any attempt to descend the shafts was impracticable, and almost immediately it was ascertained that the coal in the

workings where the explosion had occurred was on fire—a result that demands the strongest measures. In this case fortunately there was a river close by, and it was resolved to Hood the pit. A pipe about as big as a man’s body was driven through the bank into the body of the stream, and carried across to the pit mouth. For three or four days ati incessant body of water was allowed to fall down the shaft, at the rate of sevenu tons per minute. When this had risen to a sufficient height to extinguish the fire, and flood every crevice of the pit, moans had to be resorted to for getting the water out again. The colliery was provided with engine and pumping power nearly sufficient to bring out the water as fast as it had (lowed in, but unfortunately the earthy matter that came up with the water soon spoiled the pumping apparatus, and now the engineers are proceeding with the tedious process of winding it up in huge tanks. Meantime the corpses of two hundred and sixty men and the carcases of about eighty horses have been dissolving in the water, and I am told that the smell of the liquid which the tanks bring up has been getting more and more nauseous. I suppose by about Christmas time the skeletons of these victims will be found. In this case there has been another tremendous outburst of charity, and we have been shown that if Death, as the Latin poet tells us, knocks at both the portal of the palace and the gate of the cottage, at least both monarch and peasant are ready to relieve the distress which the pale-faced one brings to others. The shareholders in the London gas companies have suffered a very severe electric shock this week. Within the past fortnight the half-yearly meetings of all the principal companies have been held, and the chairmen devoted a large share of their speeches to the subject of the electric light, deprecating that any' panic should be caused thereby. There seemed, however, to be in the minds of the directors a tacit understanding that before long they would lose the public lighting, and not without reason, for London at night is the gloomiest capital in Europe, but they consoled themselves that 99 per cent, of their business would still be left to them in private residences and shops. But they reckoned without their host, or rather without Mr Edison, the American inventor, who is regarded by the scientific world of London as the wonder of the present generation. On Monday night information was received here from two independent sources that Mr Edison had solved the problem of how to make the electric light applicable to the existing gas fittings in private houses. This was read at breakfast on Tuesday morning, and before noon gas shares had fallen in value 7 per cent,, although up to a few months ago they were regarded as safe as Bank of England stock. Nor does this prospect of electric lighting rest on mere vague report. On Tuesday night one of the largest shops in Regent street, that of the Stereoscopic Company, was illuminated by means of electricity, greatly to the satisfaction of the spectators, who saw the colored portraits behind the plate glass windows as clearly as on a midsummer afternoon. Last night the showrooms of a firm in another quarter of the town were splendidly lighted up by electric candles. Indeed, one man of science tells mo that so rapid has been the progress of invention in this department that in ten years’ time the use of gas for illumination will bo almost wholly superseded. The records of our police courts, which have for a long time been pages of dullness, are beginning to show symptoms of an awakening amongst the criminal classes. Yesterday afternoon the Lord Mayor granted a warrant for the arrest of a young man named William Stafford, who Was a clerk in the Liverpool branch of the Bank of England, and absconded a few days ago with £15,000 worth of notes, the numbers of which were not known. Stafford is a married man, but came to London with a woman who is nob Mrs S. They were accompanied to an hotel by a man who seems to have been known to Stafford. This latter asked his friend the next morning to go to the Bank and change £3OOO worth of notes into gold. Some suspicion was excited in the mind of the friend who went to the Bank of England and deposited the notes with an explanation of how he came by them, but when inquiries were made at the hotel shortly afterwards Stafford and his companion had left. It was at first reported that he bad fled to Spain, with which country we have no treaty for the extradition of criminals, and is therefore a safe refuge, but the police think that he is now hiding in London, and they feel sure of capturing him speedily. In another case a young man who was accountant to a charitable society called the Curates’ Augmentation Fund, a voluntary society for increasing the stipends of young clergymen, has robbed it of £7OOO. At first his defalcations were not supposed to be so great, but a very slight investigation soon showed the magnitude of the robbery, which is of so serious a nature that the Government have taken up the matter, and the Treasury counsel will prosecute.

Preference. Ordinary, Total. £ £ £ City of Glasgow Bank ... 17,81.3 26,720 44,533 James Nicoi Fleming ... 40,488 60,733 101,221 John Fleming 4,031 6,947 11,578 Mr anil Mrs Fleming, mar. trustees 4,631 0,947 11,578 19,839 29,700 49,599 John Hunter, in trust... 40,797 70,190 116,993 Thomas Mathew 6,308 9,553 15,021 Thomas Mathew, in tru-t 631 946 1,577 Thomas Mathew,in trust 8,239 12,358 20,597 James Morton 101,031 154,498 255,529 James Morton, in trust 110,14(1 105,219 275,365 James Morton & James Nicoi Fleming 15,884 23,825 39,709 James Morton and Thos, Mathew, in trust 188,377 282,505 47,851 470,942 Lewis Potter 31,901 79,752 Lewis Potter, John Hunter, and James 87,026 130,539 217,565 Mrs Margt. Potter 14,919 22,378 37,297 Aloxr. Stronach 6,271 9,108 15,679 Alexr. Stronach, in trust 4,453 0,080 11,133 Alexr. Stronach, n ar. 594 891 1,485 John Stewart 29,000 44,400 74,000 739,639 1,112,414 1,852,053