OUR LONDON LETTER.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5420, 10 August 1878, Page 1 (Supplement)

OUR LONDON LETTER.

(FROM OCR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) London, June 20. After long watching and waiting, the New Zealand Loan was issued on what happened to bo the luckiest day of the year, and it was a brilliant success. It was the day on which we knew for certain that the invitations for the Congress would be accepted all round, and that England would be represented by Lord Beaconsfield ns well as Lord Salisbury. The money market, which had been gradually risj ing to a trustful and amiable spirit for a fortnight before, was determined to take an expansive and munificent view of human, and especially of colonial, prospects, and to poohpooh the narrow and gloomy fallacies with which a second-rate and hypochondriacal statistician named Wilson, an occasional contributor to The Tims and Fraser s Magazine, has imbued the minds of a whole swarm of leaderwriters as to the utter impossibility of the British colonies, aud especially New Zealand, navino their way- The subscription reminded one of the success of Louis Napoleon’s first Joans. You know long since that the amount subscribed fell little short of eight millions aud three-quarters, so that allotments were hardly at the rate of 40 per cent, on the applications. This is the more amazing considering the short time allowed for applications. The first announcement of the loan was made ou Friday, the 31st of May. Town applications were received ou the following Monday, and on that evening it was reported—and as it proved, truly—that more than double the amount wanted had been applied for. The list was closed only on Tuesday. No doubt the fact that the Bank of England was induced for the first time in its existence to issue a colonial loan had a considerable effect on the public mind. But I think it must also bo admitted that the public mind itself has of late become much better informed in regard to New Zealand, If Now Zealand has been attacked, it has also been defended, by no one more vigorously, ably, aad unflinchingly than by Sir Julias Vogel. England knows that an enormous proportion of the money she has been asked to lend has been spent in lightening the pressure on her labor market, in sustaining her iron trade, aud in producing populous and prosperous future markets for her manufactures. It has not been spent on “ blood and iron” like our Joaas to Russia aud Turkey. Lord Beaconsfield started for the Congress travelling en prince, with a special steamer and special trains, and was cheered as he steamed out of Charing Cross until the roof rang again, and cheered all the way to Berlin. But I am not quite sure that he would uot be hooted and hissed if he were to confront the same crowds to-day. Whenhoatarted, every one supposed that England was entering Congress free and unfettered—the guardian uot merely Of her own honor, but of that of Europe; aud that Russia had been compelled to lay the whole Treaty of San Stefano on the table only by the firm but temperate and disinterested attitude of our Government. No sooner had the English Plenipotentiaries started than ugly rumors began to circulate about .a secret agreement between Count Sohouvaloff and Lord Salisbury. The Glohc had already intimated its knowledge of some heads of a compromise so long ago as the 30th May. It published what purports to be the entire document on the 13th of Jane, and Ministers, at once challenged in both Houses of Parliament, have only been able to give very lame replies. There is a great collapse of public spirit in consequence. The most ardent advocates of the Govenment, Pall Mali and the Telegraph, attack its conduct with virulence, and it is but lamely defended by the Standard, which endeavors to make out that the act is Lord Salisbury’s alone, and that Lord Beaconsfield is still free to take his own line and insist on larger terms in Congress. pall Mall intimates that the mysterious document was long since offered to it for a consideration by a mysterious “ gentleman from St. Petersburg,” who would give no other name or address. Wherever it came from, ! suspect you will find that its consequences will be very much more serious than any that have yet transpired at the moment X am writing to yon. A friend writing from Pans speaks of the general regret felt among all who are interested in the newest new worlds at the absence of New Zealand from the Exhibition. The Austrians in particular,' who were much interested by the appearance you put in at Vienna, complained loudly, wondering had the Pacific again submerged the happy islands so well described by Hochstetter. A few photographs, a little wool, and some Maori medicines, are, my friend writes, the bulk of New Zealand’s contributions. I believe the Exhibition is still in a backward state very discreditable to Us management. The catalogue is as yet, seven weeks after its opening, not ready. Building operations, involving screening of lime aud mixing of mortar in the grounds, are still going on briskly. The English and Japanese departments are in applepie order, but pretty nearly everything else, and especially the French sections, aresouie what higgledepiggledy. There was a time when we used to hear of French organisation and French system as far sui passing our insular absence of method. Mail nous arons changi taut eda, and they, too, have changed in some respects for the better, in some, also, for the worse, since the days of the Empire. Weather seems to me to have this year exercised a very depressing effect ou the festivities of the season. Garden parties are as yet an impossibility. Polo is not played to advantage in waterproofs. Dinner parties suffer when vegetables are bad and fruit worse. An epidemic of influenza is fatal to the liveliness of balls. Don’t imagine that I am romancing when I write in this way. lam in sad sober earnest. Two days ago, on the 17th of June, the temperature was found to be four degrees lower in London than it was m Lapland. Yesterday the gloom of the atmosphere was as great at midday as I have ever known it to be In November, and for two hours I had to read and write by gaslight. We had, on one day m the first week of April, as much ram as ought to have fallen during the whole course of the month—and really it is not much 6f an exaggeration to say that it has rained more or Jess every day since. I fear it will be a bad year for England in many ways. It is well to be able to report, however, that the great Lancashire strike has come to an end, with a loss of about a quarter of a million, to bo borne by masters and men. The emigration season to New Zealand is commencing with great vigor. I believe both the London and Scotch agencies are so flooded with applications for assisted passages that the task of selection, never easy, must be at preoent unusually d'ffkult. There is besides an undoubtedly growing tendency to emigrate on the part of the class of small capitalists who used thirty or forty years ago to start as gentlemen farmers here. I subjoin a list of the vessels at present loading for ports iu New Zealand. , ~ _ For Auckland; The Famenoth sails June 25, the AvonaJuly 5, and the May Queen July 10. For Canterbury; The Waitangi sails July 0, the Crusader July 10, the Glenlora July 30, and the Kangitikei July 31. For Euterpe June 29, the Mataura July 15, the Calypso July 25, and the Waipa, August 10. For Wellington ; The Rakaia sails Juno 23, St. Leonards Juno 25, Wairoa July 15, Hermione July 20, and the Adamant August 15. F r Bluff Harbor and Timaru: Tho Anazi sails June 25. Fpr Bluff Harbor: The Waimea sails June 26. For Napier : The City of Auckland sails July 13. For Nelson; The Edwin Fox sails July 10.. The Agent - General has chartered the Kakaia, which sails on the 28 th for .Wellington; the May Queen, which sails on July 10 lor Auckland; the Invercargill, ou the 11th for Pott Chalmers; the City of Auckland, on tho 12th for Hawke’s Bay; The Waitangi, for Canterbury on the 17th; and the Edwin Fox, for Nelson ou the 2Gth. The new, loan did not in any appreciable way affect the value of New Zealand securities. The Consolidated 5 per Cents ranged since last month between 105? and 103. Their price to-day is 1011. The 1) 5-30 to 09 and fell to 95?', their present priee is 97A. The 5 per cent. 5-30 were at 104?, and fell to 102?; they are now quoted 104. _ Tho variation is really much the same as in the other colonial stocks, where there was no loan operation going on. New South Wales 4 per cents, for example, which ranged from 103+ to 101?, and South Australians, which oscillated between 98§ and 967.