OUR LONDON LETTER.

Evening Star, Issue 10691, 2 August 1898, Page 4

OUR LONDON LETTER.

ANGLOCOLONIAL NOTES. Londos, June 17. TUB NKW ZEALAND TRUST AND LOAN MEETING. Presiding over the annual general meeting of the Naw Zealand Trust and Loan Compauy, held on Tneaday last, Mr Lionel Fletcher, in moving the adoption of the report and accounts, ttok an early opportunity of relieving the mines of those shareholders who, for some reason or other, got it into their heads that the company was going to stop paying dividends on its preference shares. He said : I think I can disabuse tho minds of the preference shareholders that any such thing is contemplated. When we made what I may call an adventitious profit by the alteration in the date uf our accounts we set apart A' 12,500 for the payment of the following half-year's interest on the preference shares. We have now notified this ; that is to say, we have charged it with its own expenses only, and instead of the year ending December '.51, 1597, beating the preference dividend for the ntxt half-year, it iuw pavs the preference dividend up to and including the the lit of January, 1898. The dividends on the preference shares are in no way affected by what we hive done, but it makes our accounts more accurate. The shareholders will be giatitied to find that the very large reduction which has been made in the terminable debentures has been made without any diiliculty. Our investments iu London remain precisely as they were this time last year, though we have iu the interval paid off no less than £121,250 of debentures. Turning to the revenue account, I think we held out the hope last year that the expenses for working the company would be reduced both here and in the colony, and I am glad to say that that is so, though you do not yet -ee the full benefit of the reduction, but I am

sanguine enough to think that by the end of this year we shall lind the expenses here and iu the colony amounting altogether to a sum considerably less -perhaps half—the sum they amounted to in the halcyon days of the company. On the other -ideof the revenue account the only notable item is the one for interest and other receipts in New Zealand. When we call capital from the colony the interest receivable must necessarily lie conm lerably reduced, as the accounts show. On the subject of the colony and its resources 1 have practically nothing more to tell than you yourselves have probably gathered from what our statesmen call " the usual sources of information," and though you may sav that "the wish is father to the thought" there does seem to be some .-lightly improved demand for property. Ido not wish to exaggerate this demand or to build on if, but if the demand for property extends the demand for money will extend with it, and th->t i< what affects us and all other people engaged in ler.ding money in the colony.

After brief references to the resignation of Mr Glyn from the directorate and the death of Mr Charles Hoaro, Mr Fletcher wound up thin :

There i.- always before us the low price at winch this (Minpanv's shares arc selling. Ido not think it is the business of any Hoard to back up the li a-ket price of the shares, crtainly not to speak in an exaggerated form with that object in view. It, was very sad to see people who bought shareat much higher prices sacrificing them at the ridiculous lig.ire which the shares stood at a -.hurt time ago, but 1 am glad t < know that they now st md considerably higher, though, in my opinion, •til! far to low. What 1 want the shareholders to do is to study the accounts and history of the company, and to fed assured that nothing which could depreciate their property is from them. Throughout the condu.'t of ooybusine-s we have never tried to make the best of matters, aud have always i--ued a truthful and impartial statement, and I think any shareholder who chooses to study our accounts cannot be otherwise than well safe-lied with the results they show. 1 oppose it is the fear of a call which operates with many people, and uhlikcs them to part with their shares. I will ask you only to notice what the accounts now show. The only liability, the only debt, is the debenture debt ot the company. This is -hown to be IT.il.ilUO, and within three weeks from this time it will amount to only .L'IUUHMI, and unless you entirely misdoubt the provision we have made under the head of contingent account, you mint see what a splendid security there is for tho.-o debentures, and how almost impossible it is that any call should be iv ipiired to redeem them. Mr F. T. Doxil did not think that anyone doubted that the accounts rendered were perfectly cornc", am', further, he did not believe that 'hero was the slightest doubt that the dtluniures were perfectly and thoroughly secure, but it was clear that the company was uot worked at a profit ; and year by year it must wi rk less and less at a profit, for the simple reason that the rate of interest iu the colony was not, he thought, guing to increase, but to diminish, A brief discussion followed, and the chairman having added the explanations desired the risolution was put to the meeting aud carrr.-d unanimously. Tna Chairman then proposed—" That a dividend of i-'i Gl pjr share, free of income tax, lu declared on the ordinary shares if the company, payable iu Loudon on the loth inst. aud in New Z -aland as soon as tiie manager may be able to fix after rccJpt of advices.''

The motion was agreed to. TIIH I'. AMI 'I MIKTIN*;. The hi'.li'-yearly anmul general meeting of the I'. and U. Company, which was held at theollbes en Tu ■ d.y last, la'.scd otf, us usual, without incident. Sir Thomas (Sutherland, o.i is Irs wont, mado a concise speed l , in which h.j toothed briclly upon the leading incidents of the period covered by tliei'tput, but a-i h!a remarks were, to a very great extent, inertly amplifications of paragraphs in the report of the directors touched upon by me last mail I do not propose to quote him extensively. Regarding the (at present) much discussed question of liquid fuel for ocean-going steamers, Sir Thomas said that they had all been warned lately that a revolution was likely to take place with regard to the supply of fuel, by which coal would be superseded or supplemented Ly the usa of mineral oil. Tint idea was by no means a new one, as it was brought promiuently before the notice of the Hoard no Icisa than twenty - five years ugo, but the defect which was then apparent was that it was impossible to rely on anything like regularity or infallibility in the supply of oil at the various ports visited by the company's vessels, and naturally the same applied now, and a steam vessel must be utterly dependent on the supply of one kiucl of fuel or the other. He therefore thought it was safe to say that coal might be expected to keep tolerably well ahead, especially having icgard to tho fact that the coalrislds which were to be opened up in China were said to be unexampled for richness and extent.

The chairman then touched upon German enterprise in the Eist, Ha said that then: seemed at the present time a prospect of China being opened up on a scale irtcrly unexpected a few years ago, and there had been a con-.idcrab!o feeling of uneasiness in tho public mind lest Great Britain should not keep her fair share of the comnter cial harvest likely to bo cb'aincd by the opening up of that vast country. He was of opinion that those apprehensions had not been without foundation, for they had had to meet iu that matter rivalry from foreigu countries whose policy had by no means been that of the " open door. : ' He thought, however, that they might feel tolerably confident that English shipowners wete pretty certain to do their utmost to obtain a fair share of tho trade in any part of the world, and so long as they continued to launch 1,000,000 tons of steam shipping every year it was pretty certain that the British flag would be equally well en evidence even at Talienwan. It was, however, impossible, to ignore the rivalry ol the Germans in connection with the future of their trade in that part of the world. With the enoouragement of the German Government, the great German shipping companies were spreading themselves Eistward, and were making strides in such' a manner as to give the Board of the P. and O. Company serious food for reflection. The policy of the directors hadbcea for a very considerable num! er of years to restrict capital outlay as much as possible, for the simple reason that in the present day, when mail contracts were put on a very much smaller scale than hitherto, and whon the services which those contracts involved were vastly more onerous, it was extremely difficult to obtain an adequate return. That, difficulty had been experienced particularly this year, for tho company hail taken a new mail contract with a £20,000 a year reduce! subvention, but with regard to which the service would le vastly more onerous than the service whiidi expired on January 111 last. He t!i!;u;;ht the policy of the Board as regarded capital < xpenditure was a good one, as was proved by the market value of their while, on the other hand, they could not, b? accused of want of enterprise, for they iiad ixp-.'.-'b'l .£-1,500,000 (luring the last u-u years on tho c>:istruetion of new ships. The directors felt, however, that they had no right to complain of that German enterprise, though it ni'ght call for increased efforts on their part and increased working capital, and he could assure the meeting that the matter would receive thoir utmost consideration, for though they were on the best of terms with their German competitors it would never do for the P. and O. to fall behind in the race on which they had entered. LORD BRASSEY ON VICTORIA. There was a large attendance last Tuesday at the closing meeting of this session of the Royal Colonial Institute to hear Lord Brassey read his paper on ' Recent Social and Political Progress on Victoria.' General Sir Henry Norman was in the chair, and *mongst the New Zealanders present I

notioed the following t—Messrs W. Weddel, John Beaumont, W. J. Birch, A. Clayden Q. Beetham, G. D. Greenwood, W. Stanford, A. S. Otterson, Mr and Miss, Ohaytor, and Dr C. Inglis. MR CHAMBERIAIN AND THE COLONIAL FRSMIEBS. In the course of last Friday's spirited debate in the House of Commons on the Foreign Office vote, Mr Maclean, the member for Cardiff, caused muoh amusement by contrasting Mr Chamberlain's attitude at Jubilee time with his recent speech at Birmingham, wherein, to use Mr Asquith s expression, he "touted "for allies. Said Mr Maclean: "They all recolleoted how last year the celebrations indicative of the great majesty and dominion of the British Empire culminated in the memorable picture of the Colonial Seoretary surrounded by his Prime MinUter. Nothing like it had been seen since Alexander's feast:

Aloft in awful state The godlike hero sate On his Imperial throne ; His valiant peers were placed around. How changed was the right hon. gentleman now. The conqueror had become a suppliant for an alliance with some great military Power." _^___