NEW ZEALAND AFFAIRS IN ENGLAND.

Southland Times, Volume VI, Issue 491, 11 June 1866, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND AFFAIRS IN ENGLAND.

The London correspondent of the Wellington Independent writes as follows : — J The Panama Company shares have slightly improved in the quotations of the Stock Exchange. This Company has expended, as a .New Zealand Steam Navigation Company, the very large sum of £600,000 up to the present time which includes the cost of their four Panama vessels. On most of this capital a dividend of only 5 per cent has been paid. From this it will be seen how much New Zealand has benefitted by the expenditure of this Company's capital, and how moderate has been the profit of the English Company. Their £10 shares, as paid up, stand 'at 6£ to 7i- ; their =85 , shares, as paid up at 4to 5. On the 13th inst £500.000 of 6 per cent debentures— a portion of your three million loan was offered for competition by the Crown Agents for the Colonies, when over £350.000 of that amount was taken np at the minimum 90. Strange to say there were hai'dly offers made by the brokers. The highest amount applied for by any one was, I beieve, £13,000, and there -were 230 applications — the united amount of whose applications represented only the sum £251<,000. The balance, about £120,000 of the above half-million loan, was again advertised in the form of a paragraph in the money article of the X Times on the 17th inst., ; which stated that the 8 per cent Treasury Bills would be taken in exchange for debentures at the rate of 100 of the former for 90 of the latter. I understand that nearly the whole of the £120,000 is taken up. That £100 should be offered in exchange for £90 is no more than might be - expected I considering the present prostate state of your credit in the London market. In the official lists your 5 per cent £100 debentures stand at 79 to 71, and your 6 per cent ones have gone down from 100 — 102, to 93 and 94. ' This, in the case of the 6 per cents, has been caused by the above half million being offered at £90. But as your agents lnust.raise the money, I presume they did hot like to run the risk of receiving few or no tenders for your loan by offering it ab a higher rate. Prom a Londsn stand point it does appear that colonists look upon financial affairs in a lighter and more caroless way than we do here. I wish that anything I could urge would have the effect of causing some of your readers to take a more serious and matter of fact view of financial transactions and operations in general, for the existing posture of affairs is prejudicial to you in the extreme. Still, however, discouraging the state of the credit of the whole of your colony may now be, the recent news of the probable termination of the war, if confirmed by advices to be received by the next two or three mails, will do a great deal to restore your credit in the English market. But, has I have stated on former occasions, much more depends upon the continued unity of your colony and on. the financial legislation of your Parliament than upon anything else. Only let the English public see that you are able to meet your liabilities, and willing to do so, and that you hold togetheras one man to support theburthenof your legitimate and inevitable responsibilities, incurred in common, and hereafter to be shared in common with all their advantages or disadvantages as the case may be. Tou will be glad to learn that' the bank rate of i"i ;eount is to 6 per cent, and that money is more plentiful, and the price of wool higher, Still there is a good deal of depression at the present moment among the Joint Stcc'c Companies in the city, and shares have goue d wn considerably. This is doubtless ow'ng in a great measure to the recent failure of the Joint -Stock Discount Company, which only a couple of months back was supposed to be in a. flourishing condition, and which actually declared a respectable dividend last Christmas. The system, of bringing out companies under the wing of " Financial Companies," which for a certain consideration, buy up the shares and then " float " them into the market at a high premium, and then drop them down as speedily as possible, appear to be a moet vicious system, calculated to mislead and " gull " the public who do not understand the nefarious practices which prevail among the " promoters " of companies at the present day. £700,000, 5 per cent debentures of the New South Government, were offered on the sth instant, at .91, 92|, and 95, but only about £29,000 worth were applied for that day. As a contrast to the state of your credit in the London market, I may adduce the case of the little Sepublic of Chili; and whereas New Zealand on the one hand is at "war with a mere handful of savages, Chili on the other is at war with a formidable European power ; and yet it offers for tender (on the 27th and 28th ultimo, and on the Ist instant) at 92, 6 per cent debentures to the amount of £450,000, when applications are sent in to the amount of th.ree and a-half millions. It is true that their debentures are to be redeemed at par in about two years, but so were your 8 per i cent. Treasury Bills, which were not S readily taken up at a little over par. I hear that nearly the whole of the balance of the material --'or your slip is now on j hoardti.o N^^y.ioc'udmg the two 25 ! v &ui*^S : eT<ngiA^anu. uiso the chain i i'ji- -uuiiiu uu vessels of 250!) ton 3 i bi'ii-'llit-M.' VL'.-ViHX'C-iuch < >; ::un is a mas- .!•,■■.' ;ilJiu:\ K'iii. ; v 1 - i;; ' !ia H—' 1 larger than : *'•> « '• 1-,'ji <-ii ; v-. if the C-.vit Eastern, Viiicu is oiny -2i#, and wa- ..v.sted at the same works as yours, i-na^ly, Brown,i Lenon and Co., Mill wall. The Taranakr Loan Sand Company is making rathe slow progress towards completing it 8 arrangements for commencing its work 3 ing New Plymouth. This arises from the state of the money market, and the unusual distrust with which all new companies (limited) are just now regarded. The Weymouth, with the Cook Strait cable on board, (all safe and tested) was ' fired, and was likely to 'leave Grravesend on Saturday last, the 24th inst. Just be-

fore the cable was completed, two faults were found in it, and had to be cut out. This was owing, I hear, to some malicious persons driving a stiff needle or fine spike into the core of the cable. The Napier is to sail for your port in the first week in April, and the Lizza Scot in the beginning of May. Mr Fox's work on the " "War in New Zealand " is out, and contains some valuable information, 250 copies will be sent by this mail to "Wellington. I presume you will have heard that by a parliamentary paper just issued, that it appears that your Colony owes the Imperial Government £764,829, less the -half million of debentures paid on account.