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Lyttelton Times, Volume XXV, Issue 1695, 23 May 1866, Page 2

Reliable private information has reached us by the present', mail relative to the "disposal of the Colonial Loan. It will be remembered that Mr Header Wood sold one million of the Three Million Loan of 1863, at about 80.; the debentures then bearing five per cent interest. There h ! as been offered since ;a half million of the same loan, but at four per cent interest,, to:the:lmperial Government, the negotiation of which is still undetermined; No other transaction haß t^ken'place Hn the loan till'now, except a forestalling of one million by .8 per cent Treasury Bills, with short currency, which must be taken up sooner or latej* by the proceeds of the ordinary debeuitures when floated. In March last,' ai we learn by the news just received, the Crown agents offered half a million! of the debentures, now bearing six percent interest, for public application. They fixed the selling price at 90. As New Zealand Six per cents, of 1861, have stood in the Stock Exchange quotations at 100 to 103, the price fixed by the agents must be considered remarkably low. But they had power from the Government to offer them at and above 90, and appear to have been unwilling to risk the sale or to compromise themselves by fixing a higher To all appearance 95 would have proved just as attractive a price to those who applied. £350,000 went off. .The:applications were very numerous; and among them 230 persons applied for £284,000. The list was remarkable for the number of names/ of ladies, clergymen, and officers of the array and navy, and the total absence of members of the Stock Exchange. By the latter the loan was perfectly ignored, and not a single speculative offer appeared among the applications. The balance of the loan, was offered to holders of the 8 per cent Treasury Bills, at the rate of £IOO, six peri cent bonds for every £9O of bills with accrued interest. Ode large transaction at least of this kind is reported, to the extent of £IOO,OOO. The loan may therefore be said to have floated at the price put upon it. The exchange for Treasury Bills is apparently a better transaction for the colony, as far as price is. concerned, than the sale at 90; tor with the interest saved, the bills are calculated to have been bought at £9l 13b for £IOO of debentures. At 90, the loan disposed of pay's £6 13s 4d interest per cent. Other loans have been on the market, witli which a comparison may be made. The colony of New South Wales endeavoured to float a loan of £700,000 at Five percent; but. offers for only £29,000 were received, though the minimum prices, fixed were calculated to pay the investor 6f per cent., or rather more than the New Zealand Loan. A Chilian Loan at 6 per cent, of £450,000 for two years was issued, and the price fixed was 925. No less than £3,523,300 was applied for in three days, and: of course the wtiole £450,000 was allotted. And yet Chili is at war with Spain. Such is the caprice of the money market. No IeBB than 205 members of the Stock Exchange were among the applicants. And there js little doubt that

the [same powerful agencywould bo exisfvjn fwourof thisfcblotfy were our hands;ofl the Crown Agmits,;,,;%. year's .instalment of the Canterbury Ly ttelton and 1 jfilhristchurch .lUuway 1 Loan; namely,, ££'o,ooo, at 6 per cent,' has 1 .been disposed' of in one lot at 88, with)accrued interest from January lst,„tHus yielding little over £BG lOa. Considering the security and the nature of the bonds, the price seems inadequate: but there is little doubt that, in the general opinion at homo, the security which Canterbury has to offer is overshadowed by the wants of. the General Government. The instalment now sold we believe is the last but one of the whole Eailway Loan.