THE New Zealand Herald. SPECTEMUR AGENDO. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 1876.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XIII, Issue 4460, 29 February 1876, Page 2

THE New Zealand Herald. SPECTEMUR AGENDO. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 1876.

The purchase of the Khedive's shares in the Suez Canal has created a profound sensation throughout Europe. At home it lias excited the strongest enthusiasm. It is greeted as a direct and bold declaration that " the Imperial powers" shall not settle Turkish affairs without England haying a voice in the matter. With France crippled, Russia, Germany, and Austria seemed to think they could do as they liked and throw out of calculation anything England, with a powerful navy but small army, could do against them. Their own jealousies and opposing interests have prevented the "Imperial" powers taking active steps hitherto. Now, by a sudden and unexpected stroke, England has stepped in and taken up her position without consulting them, or recognising their right of interference in any way. As a political move, the purchase of these sliares is the most important event for many years. To appreciate its full importance, we need only ask ourselves what would have been thought had France, Russia or Germany made the purchase instead ? There is this to be said, however, against a purchase by either of these powers. The Canal Company is entirely French. Its promoters and directors are French, and its head office is in Paris, but the traffic on the Canal is three-fourths English, and, had any other power obtained the right to interfere, this traffic would have been seriously imperilled. England on the other hand, has only one interest, to preserve the freedom of traffic on the Canal for herself and for all nations. The returns of vessels passing through the Canal during 1874 were— English 1,707,000 tons French .. .. .. 222,000 ~ Dutch.. .. 103,000 ~ Austrian 84,000 „ Spanish .. .. 60,000 ~ German .. ,« .. 39,000 ~ Other nations use it only to a trifling extent and Russia hardly at all. As to the company itself, some particulars may be interesting. There are 400,000 shares of £20 each, making the capital eight millions. Of these shares the Khedive owned 177,600 which have been bought for four millions. There are two peculiarities in connection with the Khedive's shares. In order to help the company when in difficulties he sur-' rendered his right to dividends for twenty-five years, of which nineteen are still to run. During that period the company is to pay out of profits dividends on these shares at the rate of 5 per cent., which dividends will go to the new holders : If they do not pay, the Khedive is bound to do so himself. The second peculiarity is, that the company only have a concession for ninety-nine years. They have a sinking fund of eight shillings per cent, and, as the sinking fund accumulates, approp :iate it to cancelling shares by annual drawings. The shares sold to T7.ncln.Tirl .we not in this position. They represent the permanent interest which the Khedive had in the reversion of the Canal when the concession to the company expired. In addition to the ordinary shares of eight millions the company owes more than eight millions and a-liaif as follows :— Obligations of £20 each bearing interest at 5 per cent, and redeemable at par by lottery drawings 0,000,600 Bonds of £5 each redeemable at par in thirty years and beariDg 5 per cent. iuterest 000,000 Bonds of £3 3s. esch at 5 per cent. .. 3,300,000

£B,G2G,GGG The gross liability to shareholders and bondholders is thus, in round numbers, sixteen millions and three-quarters. The income for 1875 was £1,245,000. The working expenses were £276,000 leaving £969,000 available for interest, dividends, and repairs. Interest on the debt absorbs £530,000. The statutory dividend of 5 per cent, on the shares, takes another £400,000. This leaves about £40,000 for repairs which it is notorious will cost a very much larger sum, to say nothing of the necessity of improving the canal, so that it may carry the daily increasing traffic. The shares of £20 hare risen, since the English - purchase, to £30 10s. The "obligations" of £20 sell at 17s. 6d. premium. They are "lottery" obligations. The sinking fund provided for them is appropriated in annual drawings, but at each drawing a certain portion of this sir king fund goes in prizes ; one prize is for £6,000 ; two are for £1,000 each, two for £200 each and twenty for £S0 each. The holder of twenty " obligations," for which he has paid £437 10s., may thus win, at each drawing, a prize of £6,000 and so make £120,000 in addition to being repaid the original £400. He may draw any of the lesser prizes and so make in proportion, or finally may draw no prize at all and lose the £17 10s. paid j5 in premiums. The company is managed, like other companies, by the votes of its shareholders, but a clause in the deed of association prohibits any individual holder from having more than ten votes. Even the right to these ten votes is contested in France in the Khedive's case, on the ground that the shares carry no dividend for nineteen years and the holders are therefore not interested in seeing the canal worked fer an immediate profit. Despite these complications the company's shares have risen in value since the purchase, which the President of the company, M. De Lesseps, has officially informed the shareholders will be greatly to their advantage in various ways, but especially in procuring from England active help, instead of the passive but injurious opposition she has given to the canal from its first inception -

It will be seen from these particulars that, as a commercial speculation, the price given for the shares was much too high. In fact it is now well known they were offered to a syndicate of French financiers at a much lower rate and refused. While the negotiations with this syndicate were pending, Mr. Greenwood, the Editor of the Pall Mall Gazette, communicated with the Government and suggested the purchase, confining himself, in the Gazette, to a few vague notices lest the negotiations should be affected. The suggestion was accepted and arrangements were made with Baron Rothschild, who offered to find the money on the chance of Parliament appropriating it when they met. The negotiations with the Paris syndicate breaking down, the four millions were immediately tendered to the Khedive in cash through the Bank of Egypt. His necessities being very great, the millions were taken, and they will go the way of so many, millions in Egypt and Turkey, and soon be heard of no more. When cotton was high; the Khedive, with an immense supply of labour and suitable land, made fabulous sums. When, the American civil war ended and cotton foil,the Khedive <vas one of the most severe sufferers, and.has been living in the grandest style but in embarrassed circumstances ever since. He has no further

interest in the Canal/liut i'e has vast territories to dispose of,' and \EhgUslimeii, encouraged by the action.- of tKeir Government, will" not" be slow to purchase and settle in the country. Tliis "will probably be. tlie most, immediate result, and one that" will give England a hold 011 Egypt not easily to be , shaken by all the powers combined. The I position is one in which her fleet" can do good service, and from which she may wait with comparative unconcern the fall of Turkey, and the quarrels among the "Imperial" powers likely to result. No doubt we shall hear more of the matter, and attempts may be made to place the Canal under the joint European powers, in order that its neutrality may be guaranteed. The temper of the nation has been too long tried by the studied neglect of these powers, and any attempt at dictation will be met with a resolute and steady refusal. It is very likely also to precipitate the action of Russia in dealing with Turkey, and in every aspect is a political move of the gravest character. It has given a new strength to the Conservative administration, and a new lustre to Mr. Disraeli's name, has soothed the amour proprc of the nation ; and will, perhaps, in addition to the very handsome commissions a transaction of this magnitude must carry, lead Baron Rothschild to the English Peerage he has long coveted. Mr. Greenwood, with whom the idea originated, not being a wealthy financier, and having been purely influenced by political insight and patriotic zeal, will probably receive from the Government the distinguished honor of a- C.M.G.

A " native difficulty" of a startling character emerges on the East Coast. A native army of some three hundred men is marching through our settlements to attack their enemies, and a battle, or slaughter, seems imminent. The circumstances leading to this affair are so recent that we need hardly recapitulate them. Petara Koikoi, one of the Urewera tribe, residing at Tairua, is supposed to have caused the death of a native by witchcraft, and as it was believed not to be the first case, and that he was becoming addicted to " the black art," a council was held, and he was sentenced to death, which sentence was carried out with very little delay, and he was murdered. This was the second case of the kind which had occurred within a few weeks, and the Government ought at once to have taken measures to have the murderers arrested and tried. But some delay took place before anything was done, and at last, after frequent reference to Wellington, the Government ordered an officer to make an "inquiry," which was quite unnecessary, as the facts were undenied and. notorious. The murderers, who were wellknown, were, it is said, present at the inquiry, at which no small amount of mt cheek" was given to the Government agent, jtfo arrest was made, and apparently the intention was to allow the whole affair to die out, when the relatives of the murdered man take up the subject, and march towards Tauranga in battle array to the number of 200 men. These Urewera live in a region which has hardly been penetrated by Europeans ; they are warlike, determined, and not inclined, to be deterred by official persuasions ; they are much stronger than the tribe who are sheltering the murderers. That Section of the Ngaiterangi will simply be massacred if they do not Hee. A good many of us have seen, so many extraordinary affairs in New Zealand that we liavis ceased to "be surprised at anything, but we have no doubt that the present state of affairs will strike any newchum with amazement. The Urewera have still a long journey between "Whakatane and Katikati, and possibly they may be persuaded or bribed from their purpose. They have this excuse, however, that the Government have shewn themselves too weak to punish crime, and that, therefore, they must do it themselves. We offer a suggestion to the Government, namely, that they should apprehend the murderers at Katikati, and should engage the Urewera to march into the King country in pursuit of Wynyard.

The firing which took place at Wanganui yesterday, and which will be found fully reported elsewhere, has considerably altered the position of affairs. The firing of the Fourth Infantry Match resulted in favour of Armstrong, of the Thames, who headed the list with a brilliant score of 69, and who now takes the place of honour among the Auckland provincial representatives, previously occupied by Morrow, who, we are sorry to say, has fallen hopelessly behind. The two Waiukti men, Crawford and Mellsop, are still in the running, and are now making good scores, but their eliance of winning the belt are infinitesimally small. Murray, the only other Thames representative, whose aggregate is worth anything, is also out of the race, his score being one point behind that of Morrow. At the conclusion of the fourth match, Armstrong, who had not hitherto figured to any advantage in the previous contests, sprang suddenly to the top of the tree—heading the list of aggregate scorers by three points. In firing at the ranges of the fifth match taken yesterday, however, we regret to see that he spoiled his good score by making an indifferent one, which diminishes his chances of victory, and gives Willcocks of Otago a lead of three points—in fact, just reversing the position of the two candidates. Gnly seven shots at 200 yards remain to be fired to decide who is to be the champion rifle-shot of New Zealand for 1576, and probably one of Otago's representatives will be the person. If Otago does succeed in taking the Belt, she may rest assured that Auckland will not despair, but will fight the harder next year. However, as Armstrong is a calm and tried shot, we should not be in the least surprised to hear of him wresting first honors from his antagonist yet. At anyrate, Auckland pins her faith to him as being the only one who has any show of keeping up her reputation. For the Carbine Belt, one match—at 500, 400, and 200 yards, seven shots at each—remains to be fired. Bannister, of Wellington, is at present highest in the aggregate, with Bell, of Auckland, one point behind. The tussle for victory will be a hard and severe one, but we confidently expect that our representative will come out the conqueror. In the meantime we must patiently await the result.