ENGLISH NEWS.

Temuka Leader, Volume 2, Issue 130, 19 March 1879, Page 3

ENGLISH NEWS.

<t>- [“ Pall Mall Gazette.”] THE GLASGOW BANKAS NEW ZEALAND PROPERTY. At the trial of the Glasgow Bank ■directors Mr W. Morrison, accountant of the Bank, gave the following evidence as to the purchase of the New Zealand property, in which he said the total sum invested was L 400,000. He said he was never present at any of the meetings which took place in regard to the advances to Messrs Nichol, Fleming, and Co., and Messrs. Lines, Wright, and Co, Mr Morrison was then recalled, and

gave farther information as to the alterations made in the balance-sheet, and the manager’s private secretary stated that Messrs Smith, Fleming, and Co.’s letters were addressed to the manager, and opened by him personally. In further examination, Mr Morrison, being recalled, said, that on April 12th, 1875, the total indebtedness of Messrs Smith, Fleming, and Co. to the Bank was L 1,331,000. The state of indebtedness at the stoppage was L 1,900,000, or thereabouts. The indebtedness or Mr James Morton was L 1,858,294, and his securities L 1,018,807. The total indebtedness of these firms was about L 4,670,000, and the securities against that were L 3,275,000. In regard to Mr Nicol Fleming’s account, a security of £400,000 was down as the capital in his Manchester and Calcutta business, but the Bank had no title to that. There was an item of L 5814 of British Linen stock, to which the Bank had no title. There was another item of L 776,000, which was 400 per cent, premium on the shares of the New Zealand and Australian Land Company, put down at the figure to make the account balance. At that time the shares were selling at L 62 10s. EMIGRANTS FOR AUSTRALASIA. In the statistical abstract just published by the Board of Trade, the figures are given of the emigrants from the British Islands during the last ten years. Here it is satisfactory to observe that although the emigration to the United States has fallen off from 166,730 in 1873 to 54,554 in 1876, the emigrants to Australia and New Zealand show comparatively slight decrease, taking one period with another ; and in 1877, 82,196 emigrants went to those colonies. This change of destination should be encouraged in every possible way. Our Australian colonies are altogether our best customers in every respect, in spite of the Protectionist tendencies of some among them. At this time of depression, therefore, the Government and the Agents-General might do worse than distribute short statements of the facts in relation to these colonies among the able-bodied poor. Assisted emigration is a great benefit both to the mother country and the colonies at such a time, and might be carried on, it seems to us, far more systematically than at present.