MR WARD IN LONDON.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1215, 14 June 1895, Page 19

MR WARD IN LONDON.

From Our Special Correspondent. 4 ' : London, May 3. . THE LOAN. It seems I was mistaken in inferring that the Bank of England had made the retention of the inscribing of your stock the price for guaranteeing the success of the new 3 per cent. loan. The Bank has not guaranteed its success in any manner, nor put itself out of the way the least to help. Mr . Ward’s , telling hie the success of the loan uras certain led td this blunder. I concluded that it must be already practically undeCa.- written. But the AgentGeneral says, " Nothing of the sort. The loari. is.boi ngHe'rougli t out in the ordinary ’"conventional fashion. Mr Ward didn’t mean you., to take him so literally. We cons islpp success probable certainly, but till ~'th'e _ tenders are opened nothing is sure.” The minimum originally fixed on for this loan was 92, and Sir Westby Perceval believes it would have floated perfectly easily thereat, but the Bank at the last strongly advised 90, and rather reluctantly the Agent-General and Mr Ward gave way on the point. The announcement of the loan excited hardly any remark, the majority of the papers contenting themselves with a mere advertisement of,the fact. No doubt the cause for which the money is -being raised has extent disarmed criticism.

A REMARKABLE RISE IN NEW" ZEALAND STOCK. The effect of your Treasurer’s eloquence, combined with the issue of the 3 per cent. ■ loan, has been to drive up New Zealand stock in a most remarkable manner. The 3* per. cents, now stand at 104 g, and the 4 per cents, at 112£. Financiers in the City with one accord • predicted the new issue would lead to a fall in colonial stocks in general, but precisely the reverse occurred. Business in the new loan took place yesterday at 94. Altogether Mr Ward’s achievement has proved extraordinarily successful, and City men consider they are paying him a high compliment when they call your Treasurer another Sir Westby Perceval. 7. INSCRIPTION OP STOCK. The idea of transferring the inscription of stock from the Bank of England to the Bank of New Zealand had to be temporarily given up, because of legal difficulties, but that something of this sort will eventually take place,l don’t doubt. ! It seems that long before your Treasurer came Home, the Agent-General persuaded Sir Saul Samuel and Sir James Garrick, whose colonies also employ the Bank of England'.to inscribe their stock, to join him in a demand for lowered rates. The trio interviewed the late Governor, Mr Powell, who declined to listen to the proposal. He was then delicately advised to look out for squalls. Subsequently Sir Westby and Mr Ward again pressed the matter on the new Governor, and, after a long talk, told him that the Bank would certainly lose their work, and probably that of the other colonies also, if' the directors remained obstinate. There can be no doubt this seriously alarmed the new Governor (Mr Sandeman) who foresaw a loss to the Bank under his regime of <£30,000 a year. He talked to his board, and ultimately they notified Sir Saul Samuel (as senior Agent-General of the three colonies concerned) that the Bank had decided to reduce its charge for inscription <£loo per million. Sir Saul now plumes himself on the concession, but the plain truly is, as I have said, that it was proposed by Sir W. Perceval, and wrung out of the Bank by him and by Mr Ward., I may add neither of these gentlemen consider the concession sufficient and that the subject must not be considered done With. Sir Westby’s notion of the proper way to work the inscription of stock economically,is that the colonies should set up a joint office for the purpose. This seem* to me the most pregnant and common-sense suggestion yet offered. As the work of different colonies falls due at different times, it . would really not require a much larger staff to do the inscription of three or four, colonies than to do the work of one. I think the Agent-General should be instructed to test the. practicability of this excellent idea. It would no doubt require a lot of diplomacy to bring such an arrangement about, but if anyone can do it, your present Agent-General can. MR WARD AND THE VANCOUVER CABLE. Mr Ward bada long interview with Lord Ripon and Sir R. Meade re the Vancouver cable and steamship services on Wednesday. I fear he did not accomplish much. The fact is Sir JohnPender has the oar of the Colonial Office, and I would bet a guinea to the proverbial gooseberry that whilst he . lives there will bo no Vancouver cable. Sir John and Sir It. Meade are most intimate friends, and continually yachting and what not together. Sir Robert practically is the Colonial Office, and I am afraid it doesn’t lie in the power of even Mr Ward’s persuasive tongue to win him over from the views Sir J. Pender has instilled into him. ® ' ' ; , MR WARD’S DOINGS. On' Wednesday evening Mr Ward was present at the first conversazione of the Royal Society at Burlington House, and met the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Prince Alfred,' the Duke of Teck, Lord Salisbury, Mr Balfour, Lord Portsmouth, Lord Acton, Sir Red vers Buller, Dr Martineau, Sir Henry Roscoe, Dr J. H. Gladstone, Sir E. Bradford and all the great scientists. Sir Westby Perceval was also an honoured guest. Last night (as stated elsewhere) your Treasurer honoured the London-Austra-lasian. Club’s annual dinner, and replied for the visitors, and to-night Mr Montagu Nelson has invited a large party to meet him at the Junior Carlton, Club., Tomorrow (Saturday) is the most exclusive and distinguished feed of the season, the Royal Academy dinner, and on Monday Mr Ward will be present and probably speak at the banquet to the Governor of West Australia (Sir W. C. Robinson). It has been arranged that Mr Ward shall

continue his address to the Colonial Party in the House of Commons on the 9tli, and Tuesday, the 14th, is the date fixed for the banquet to your Colonial Treasurer. Lord Ripon has intimated that it will afford him much pleasure to preside, and Sir Edwyn Dawes and Mr Harrison Davis are arranging details.

the loan. : OPENING OF THE TENDERS. SUBSCRIBED EOUB TIMES OVER; From Oar Special Correspondent. London, May 3. Four o’clock. I have just returned from the Bank of England, and, being full of financial intoxication, take leave to state that New Zealand is the greatest Colony on earth—yes, sir, I repeat, THE GREATEST COLONY ON EARTH (full size caps if you please Mr Printer), and Sir Westby Perceval and the Hon J. G. Ward are its greatest financiers. New Zealand is, of course (financially), rotten to its core. Mr A. J. Wilson has said so, and he alone knows all about finance. Yet for this rotten Colony the English capitalist has been pleased to subscribe five millions nine hundred and sixty-three thousand four hundred pounds I That was the sum total of the tenders opened in the best parlour of the Old Lady of Threadneedle street to-day between 2 7 and 2.23 p.m, for the million and a half 3 per cent, loan placed upon the market by your Treasurer. -

To quit joking, the loan was a huge success —a greater success than either-Mr Ward or the Agent-General anticipated, though well informed as to the market movements. It was just on the stroke of 2 when I arrived at the Bank, but I had been sitting at the courtroom table a good five minutes before the chief cashier, attended by Sir W. Perceval and your Treasurer put in an appearance, accompanied by a couple of clerks with waste-paper baskets full of tenders. .

Next minute the business began. A tender for ,£2OOO at .£93 13s 6d opened the ball, and then in hurried succession came a torrent of <£lo,ooo and .£SOOO offers at prices varj ing from £94 3s 6d to £95. The first big tender was one for £50,000 at £94 6s, and soon after one for £IOO,OOO at £94 was opened, and another for the same amount at £94 10s. A £25,000, a £15,000 and some dozens of £IO,OOO tenders followed at from £94 3s to £94 10s, and a. second £IOO,OOO at £95 6s brought a satisfied smile to the Colony’s representatives’ faces. Suddenly amid a perfect rain of small fry came a £600,000 tender at £94 Bs, and then another succession of ten, fifteen and twenty-five thousand pounders. Smalls again, and then in rapid order came tenders for £IOO,OOO at £9l 10s, £150,000 at £94 6s, £200,000 at £94 6s 6d, two £50,000 at £94 6s and £94 7s respectively, a £600,000 at £94 Bs, and £150,000 at £94 7s. After this the tenders of £IO,OOO to £20,000 seemed “ small beer,” but they were “full-priced,” so to speak, being at the rate of £94 10s to £95. Another big tender of £250,000 at £94 8s was followed by a succession of small fry at from £94 Is 6d to £96 10s, and then came the whale of the batch —a syndicate tender for £1,100,000 at £94 Bs, followed by one of £50,000 at a similar rate. A few £IO,OOO offers at £94 6s brought out another big one—£42o,ooo at £94 Bs, which was followed by one for £240,000 at the same rate, one for £50,000 at £94 10s, one for £25,000 at £96 and one for £50,000 at £94 6s. Then followed the sensation of the day, to wit, a tender for £IOO at par. We finished up with a run of medium offers—from £IO,OOO to £75,000 —at low prices, £92 10s 6d to £93. The officials quickly enabled the anxious cable men to get off their messages, for at 2.30 we were informed, “ subject to correction,” that the total tenders amounted to £5,963,400, and that tenders at £94 8s would get about 33 per cent. only. Sir Westby Perceval informed me that he had anticipated an average of £94 2s B£d only. Mr Ward said nothing, but looked entirely satisfied. There can now be no question of the City’s view of New Zealand’s financial stability surely ! Ottawa, June 10.

The lion J. G. Ward will interview Sir Mackenzie Bo well, Premier of Canada, and the Hon G. E. Foster, Minister of Finance, .with reference to the Canadian-New Zealand trade and the Pacific cable.