England's Wealth

Manawatu Herald, 31 May 1898, Page 3

England's Wealth

The story ot the wealth of Great Britain waiting for any investment was ehown most decidedly a few weeks ago in London when Sir T. L'pton's business was formed into a company and applications for shar* a were invited. A contemporary says:— Over 15,000 letters containing applications and cheques were received by a single post; one vanload of letters alone brought 15 000 application?, and the swarm of personal applications wa9 almost as great. A considerable force of police had to be employed to soothe the ! emotions and moderate the fner- ! gies of the crowd of would be shareholders, who blocked up all the approaches to the offices of the National Bank of Scotland in Nicholas-lane where applications were to be re ceived. A range of offices next to the bank, indeed, had to be temporarily secured, and the crowd of perspiring applicants was shunted into these, in order to give the ordinary business of the bank a chance for existence. The manager of the bank in fact, had to engage a temporary staff of seventy additional clerks to cope wuh the rush, and two days later a special staff of no less than 500 clerks was hard at work day and night registering applications and counting money ! The mere cheques sent in, it is officially stated, would have filled stveral sacks ! The io'al amount subscribed reached nearly £50.000,000, or more than £1 per head, that is, for every man, w >irai, and baby in the three kingdoms ! The amount of actual cash sent in by way of dppo?its reached nearly £6,---000,000, and so great was the drain on the money market that the issue of the Chinese loan of £16,000,000 had to be postponed for a week in order to give it a chance of success. Money, it is clear, is the mo?t democratic of forces, Empires and kingdoms, in its realm, must give place to tea and bacon merchants ! Thare were fifty eager applicant?, in brief, for every share to be iaeued.