THE DAVIES COMPANIES.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2410, 11 October 1892, Page 1

THE DAVIES COMPANIES.

London, Oct. 7. The official receiver has published his observations on the affairs of the Mercantile Bank of Australia. He states that many of the matters con* nected with its management demand a searching enquiry. The funds in hand he considers sufficient to pay a first dividend of 2s 6d in the £, and he advises that the liquidators should collect the whole of the uncancelled capital in easy instalments. The explanation made by Sir M. Davies to the meeting of shareholders in Melbourne he considers very unsatisfactory. The receiver has realised all the assets in England, and it is estimated that the amount will reach £57,000. The total amount owing to unsecured creditors in London is £1,036,000, of which £998,000 is due to depositors. The Economist says that the history of the Davies companies in Victoria is so extraordinary that it can hardly understand how a man of honour, or even ordinary sanity, could enter into operations with them. It asserts that a vast amount of capital was never hold by genuine public, and that the money of the English depositors has been wasted in wholesale gambling, The Economist expresses surprise a t the hardihood of Sir Matthew 7j av ies' assertions, and says tli»* the disclosures will check th- recovery of faith in Austrai". iu en terprises. The transactions, it considers, ought to come before the tribunals.