PUBLIC DEBT OF NEW ZEALAND.

Te Aroha News, Volume I, Issue 37, 16 February 1884, Page 8

PUBLIC DEBT OF NEW ZEALAND.

Although the New Zealand Government invited holders of upwards of £9,000,000 of debentures to bring in their bonds for conversion into 4 per cent consolidated inscribed stock, and applications Avcre only received to the extent of £5,388,700, yet the operation is regarded as a brilliant success, at any rate, by the official representative of the Colony, in respect to £7,250,000 of the £9,000.000, the Colonial Government po^sosscd the power to compel bondholders to come in and be paid off, but tii'\v preferred to offer them the opportunity ot conversion upon equitable terms. They offered to 'conveit fio under-UHMitionod Urn U into 4 per cent stock on the following terms :—: — £(i,000,01/0 ±± per cent (]<JvM»l9(>s), at tiie r.ite of £103 of block for ovovy £K-0 in debentures ; £1,250,000 5 per cent* (190G), sit the rate of £103 10s for eveiy £100, nnd £1,832,000 debentures issued under the New Zealand Treasury Bills Acts, 1879 and 18<S0, at fc'ie rate of £100 of stock for every £100 in debentures. Rather more than £3,000,000 out of the £9,00,0000 bore interest at 5 per cent, the remainder bearing 4-|- per cent. It was not expected that more than a comparatively sum.l amount would ha\e been offered for conversion, and the extent of the applications is regarded with surprise. The result is an annual saving of £30,000 in interest, nnd the capital value of the I operation at the present moment in cash value is aboul £15,000. (Since Nov. 30, many applications to convert have been received, but none will be accepted, excepting only in the case of trustees. The operation has been elected at the expense of a very much smaller augmentation of the public debt than could have been the case two years ago. It increases the inscribed stock of New Zealand controlled by the Bank of England to rather more than £11,000,000. When the scheme was first mooted, objection was raised by some bondholders to the proposal to transfer £1,832,000 of the local indebtedness of New Zea-' laud to the English market ; but the explanations of tho Agent-General appear to have satisfied iuvestors, as applications were received lo convert the whole of the debentures issued under the Treasury Bills Act*, into inscribed stock. — Argus correspondent.

Thcie is scarcely a spot thruugnut ilia whol« worW fcluit ia not in intimate telegraphic connection vviili ICn^ianil. 'Jo cw'ry oiil tins U'unieiuluus tuiiluruuingvihd [mug aliouL this dinajc.nu result, no lo^than x 30 ,000,000 havu boon oxp«uiL«l, audtlicrj arc au i.,os-L.iari 80>J milua oi>cabl*j at ilic buLLoin oX tj/tf oucauj ' c 1 - ; i