The Southern Cross PUBLISHED WEEKLY. Invercargill, Saturday, June 23. THE NEW ZEALAND L. & M.A. COMPANY.

Southern Cross, Volume 2, Issue 12, 23 June 1894, Page 8

The Southern Cross PUBLISHED WEEKLY. Invercargill, Saturday, June 23. THE NEW ZEALAND L. & M.A. COMPANY.

“ Wait till the clouds roll by” is the advice given by some ' modern votary of the Muses. But waiting is weary work, as those connected with the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Company, from the worthy manager downwards, must have felt during the long months that have elapsed since the startling news came to hand that the Company had suffered so deeply from the depreciation of values in the colonies as to be compelled to close accounts with a view to reconstruction. Since then, as everyone is aware, the local business has been provisionally carried on by the N.Z. Land Company, the services of the old staff being retained. Under such circumstances there could scarcely be expected that life and activity in business matters characteristic of the concern when in full swing. Happily, this period of comparative dullness has come to an end, find, as willbe seen from our advertising columns, the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company is once more a potential and moving factor in the business of Southland. Farmers everywhere will be glad of this,' for they know well from past experience how much it is to their interests that there should be a sufficiency of

r 'l* ■:-> ■; ? i : :f air Competition... T here is, and w ill be, there ceii be no doubt, ample scope for the operations of all the commercial institutions that are in our midst, for on every hand evidence is to be met with of a determination on the part of the agricultural community to act on the principle of causing two blades of grass to grow where there was but one. A feature in connection with the basis upon which the Company will hereafter trade is embodied in the Articles of Association, and run* as follows :— ■“ To sell or otherwise deal with on commission, any live or dead stock, wool or other pastoral, farm, or other agricultural produce, or any merchandise or other properties of any description, upon any terms as to renumeration or otherwise that may seem expedient, and particularly upon terms whereby the property in question and the net proceeds, or balance of net proceeds, of any sale thereof or other dealing therewith, or any property representing the same, are to be held by the Coijipany as trustees, for the special account and on the special behalf of the principals, and are not, except to the extent of the Company’s beneficial interest therein, if any, to be in any way subject to any obligations, debts, or other liabilities of the Company.” The proviso to which attention has been drawn will recommend itself as a most satisfactory one. There is, humanly speaking, an absolute assurance against any involvement of accounts. The farmer or sheep-owner confiding’ his stock, the land-owner his property, or the manufactui’er his wares to the Company for disposal has a positive guarantee that he will be reckoned with to the last penny, no matter what may be in other respects the position of the Company. Perhaps such an assurance Was not necessary, but in these times of depression, and with so many unforeseen instances of collapse in this and the neighbouring- colonies, it was a wise course to adopt. The new Company takes up the running at what in the nature of things is the dull season of the year; but this may prove to be no disadvantage, for it gives time to re-gather the loose reins of business connections throughout the wide area covered by its operations. So far as this district is concerned, the old clients of the Company look back with pleasure to their connection with it, and speak in the highest terms of the treatment they received. We can only express the hope that at the close of its first twelve months of renewed activity the Company will be found to have regained its full quota of business, and that the shareholders will have no cause to regret the alacrity with which they subscribed the amount (half-a-mil-lion sterling) requisite to make a fresh start. That they offered £ lOC,OOO more is conclusive evidence of their faith in the soundness of the scheme of reconstruction that has preserved intact an org’anisation that had deservedly come to be looked upon as an integral part of our commercial fabric.