THE Inangahua Times. PUBLISHED TRI-WEEKLY. MONDAY, JULY 12, 1380.

Inangahua Times, Volume II, Issue II, 12 July 1880, Page 2

THE Inangahua Times. PUBLISHED TRI-WEEKLY. MONDAY, JULY 12, 1380.

The publication of the correspondence which passed between the London Loan Agents and the Government, in relation to the last loan, shows what a hairbreadth eecape the. Colony bad from failure. In November last Mr Julyan, writing to the PrenK ier on behalf of the Loan Agents, says : —" At the request of your pre decessor, we undertook to accept bills to the extent of £450,000, and this amount has been augmented at your solicitation, by £75,000, making in all £525,000 for which we shall become liable before the end of next month. When consenting to assume this heavy liability we fully counted upon the willingness of the Bank of England to make advances on your unguaranteed securities, to an extent sufficient to meet our acceptances as they became due. In this, however, we have been disappointed; They have, it is true, provided us with the £307,500 above referred to for general purposes, but they have positively declined to lend more. Fortunately our -other bankers — the London and "Westminster — have been more liberal and have promised from time to time to furnish us with funds sufficient to honor theso hills at maturity, and to meet within a comparatively, small 1 sum all other known liabilities to the 81st December, before which date we hope the loan agents will have raised pnough money, by the Bale of' 'debentures, to relieve us, for the time, from all further anxieties," Writing in connection with the for|sgoip^, i^e.^resssays .—lt was imperatively necessary that the money should be found, and it was equally important that tha interests of the Colony - should not be sacrificed. The Government bad no choice but to givo the Loan Agents full discretion as to the price. Mr Hall accordingly telegraphed on the 24th November—" Strictly confidential. Failure raise loan would cause seriuus difficulties. This, for your guidance respecting price." Acting on that authority the Agents fixed the price of the 5 per cent, loan at £97 10s ; anH further undertook to convert to luscribed Stock, giving a £120 4 percent, bond for every £100 5 per cent bond. On these terms tenders were cslled for, and the loan subscribed more than twice over. Almost immediately, too, these 5 per cent, bonds, with the right of inscription,

rose to a much higher price than any other 5 per cent, bonds of^jtfew Zea land. It was tberpfore^clpr that in the opinion of moneta^c'lrcles the Colony bad made a mJjgPunnecessary sacrifice. The termpf wtre everywhere spoken as « uSIt liberal," and as a consequence correspondingly in« jurious to the Colony. But while condemning the Loan Agents for making, in our opinion, such an unnecessary sacrifice, we-are fully prepared to adrait that they were placed in a most unenviable position Had the loan been a failure the results would have been most disastrous. Nothing .but the grossest maladministration, and the most reckless disregard of the credit of the Colqny, could have placed them, or the new occupants of the Treasury benches, in such an unpleasant dilemma. Things had come to such a pass that the Bank of England refused the Crown A gent 8 •' further accommodation on auy terms whatever." atd had the public refused to invest in the new loan the situation, as these gentlemen expressed it, would have "become: seriously embarrassin?."