OUR MELBOURNE LETTER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 8793, 1 May 1890, Page 1 (Supplement)

OUR MELBOURNE LETTER

(Fuom Oun Own Cokbisspondknt.) April 22. THE NEW LOAN.

Tho floating of the £4,000,000 loan in London appears on tha surface a successful operation, and no doubt it has been so in reality. Still,

when compared with tho £3,000,000 loau last

yoar the results are much less satisfactory to the colony. For last year's loan (issued lilce this year's at 3J per cont.) the average, price obtained was £102 Ms lOd; for this year's it is only £100 2s SJ. For last year's tho net proceeds per £100 were £101 lls lljd; for this year's they aro only £98 19s CJd.

Relative to the question of Victorian borrowing, a somewhat interesting document has been re-published, hero. This is a letter to the new London weekly (tho Speaker) from its Melbourne correspondent, who is onu of tho Ministry. It is shrewdly guessed that this is Dr Pearson, tho Minister of Education. Though, of course, in the main he defends the Trea-

surer, still he gives voice to some of the alarm which animates the public generally about our too rapid burrowing. I append a fow quotations : —" Tho real charges, which the public understands better than it can state them, are that we are spending too much borrowed money, and that our balance sheets are prosc-ntod year by year iv such a way as to disguise tho situation from all but a few business men, most of whom are interested in keeping things smooth. . . . Meanwhile our disposition to use foreign capital has increased faster thau either our population or our wealth. Wo borrowed £10,000,000 between 1870 aud 1880; we took 20 more in the next eight years; and them is every sign that we shall apply for 10 more in the next four— ISB9 92. Indeed, as we took £3,000,000 in January, and have authorised £5,G00,000 more, and are _to make a bill for fresh railways the first business of next session, the chances are that we shall commit ourselves to borrowing a great deal more than £16,000,000 witLiu the period I have named, though we may not actually float the loans.

The English investor will do well to consider the

situation, for it is he who pours iv the capital with which most of our public works aro made, and out of which land booms are developed, . ... If we had a long period of depression many of our railways would barely pay expenses and much of our State land would not be marketable. No one can say that such a period may not come upon us You cm understand why a few of us are rather uneasy at the situation, even ns we sco it by tha waving light of a 'prosperity budget.' We should have been, better pleased with a smaller surplus end less permanent debt." I think yoar readers will admit that Dr Pearson, if he is the eorrespondtut, has given the English investor something to think about. It will nut reassure him to know that " he pours in the capital out of which land booms are developed."" What Mr Gillies will say to his colleague for writing iv thi3 straiu and for saying also, as he elsewhere does, that " our banks subsist very much on State loans," one can only guess; but at any rate the correspondent of the London paper has bit the popular feeling wheu he says wo should all have been better pleased with a smaller surplus and a less permanent debt. It is not improbable that Mr Gillies will ask the favour of a pre-

lirninary revision of his colleague's future letters.

IOKE LAND BOOH REMINISCENCES.

Runting and Wright's was one of t!-;o biggest of the laud boom failures. They were the company promoting firm which secured Mr Larnßch as a director, and you will remember that he spoke out vigorously against their singular method of foisting properties from one set of shareholders to another at marvellous advances in price. Tha fiem's affairs are still in tho Insolvency Court, as they aro unable to pay thn necessary 7s in the pound to enable them to get a certificate. Oae of ths firm makes an affidavit about their laud boom losses which is calculated to take the breath away. By reason (he says) of the inability of the trusteo of their estate to realise their lands he was called upon by the unpaid vendors, or lha greater portion of them, to discUim the contracts entered into by Runtim; and Wright for tha pnrcbaaes, and he did disclaim them. They had paid £113,122 8s u\l on such properties, the purchases of which tha trustee disclaimed, and the whole of that money had therefore been lost. Here are some of the principal losses:—Crystal Brook Laud Syndicate, 670 acres at Heidelberg, £4«3l loss; 350 acres laud at Campbellfield. £19,855 loss; Keilor, land (400 acres), £25,000 loss; various blocks of laud at South Melbourne, £23,500 loas; shares in variom land syndicates, disclaimed to avoid calls, £20,0201055.

Another revelation made by the chairman of the Mercantile Permanent Building Society shows whero the shoe is beginning to piach after the mad building"craze of IS mouths ago. I told your re.vWrs in a recent letter that Melbourne was about to pass through an unpleasant cxperieDC! in hard times, and that one contributing causa would be the inability of borrow rs from building societies to keep up their repayments. The societies, even some oi the more cautious, are beginning to feel this. The chairman of tb.9 society mentioned thu unburdened himself to his shareholders a few days ago:—" When money was at its tightest they had not apprehended that it would have the effect of causing many who had built with the view of selling to shirk their payments, and throw their properties back upon the building society. Bat they soou fouud that with property after property, especially those built in terraces, there was no effort toade at all to meet the payments. In one case where they tried to recover the writ was returned nulla hona. It was only in the Brunswick district that they had suffered. Something like 73 cottages atid houses were handed over to them. He had very little doubt that the full valua of the loan wa? in their hands, but there was not a margin upon them as there should be. In Brunswick, with unmade streets, the rather long distance from town, and a greater supply of cottngcs than could bo rented, the result was that when they tried to get Bs, other building societies would offer similar places at ss. He had no doubt that by holding they would ultimately get in the aggregate not only the valuation but the interest to boot."

MISCELLANEOUS.

The Murray River question—that is the extraordinary claim set up by Sir Henry Parkes to complete ownership of the whole waters of the Murray—is being debated by correspondents in the public press. Professor Jenks, a young gentleman who has recently come from England to fill the professorship of law in the University, began it, with much show of deep research into old acts, by declaring that Sir Henry Parkes had not a leg to stand upon. But he has been put to utter confusion by Mr J. Dannistoun Wood, who was Attorney-g.neral in the early days, and who has recently returned from Eugland. Mr Wood has been able to expose the professor's very superficial acquaintance with the subject in hand, much to tlie entertainment of the old identities.

While Sir Henry Parkes exhibits hi 3 ill-feeling towards Victoria on the Murray question, the Sydney City Council shows its jealousy of Melbourne over a much smaller matter. Sydney has fitted up its (Vnteunial Hall with a grind organ, and imported Mr Best, the famous English organise to open the new instrument. But the organ will not be ready till July, and meantime Melbourne wiih.es to hear Mr Best upon its Town Hail organ. The Sydney City Council, however, very distinctly says "No." Me Best is not to be allowed to .oil his fingers ou any Melbourne organ.

The youth Benoett, for the murder of his uncle at Sb. Kild« by treacherously shooting him as he entered a gate in the dark, has been found not guilty on the score of insanity. The boy was dull and slow-witted, his father had been a dipsomauiaCi and ha himself hud formed injurious habits; and the jury came to the conclusion that he did not kuow the full eff.ct of his deed.

A young woman named Esther Maria Steward has obtained a verdict of £1000 damages for breach of promise of marriage against John Ouggan, at the West Maitland Circuit Court. Duggan, who wss a labourer at Lake Macqnarie, was suddenly raised from poverty to affluence by wiuniuK the first prixs; iv the £50,000 sweep on the last Melbourne Cup. Solomon Joseph, the proprietor and editor of the Tamworth News, in Naw South Wales, has been charged with haviog published an article reflecting ou the character of Hi- E. M. G. Eddy, chief railway commissioner. Xhe defendant had expressed his willingness to publish rui ample apology in the leading newspapers c<f the colon}', and this nft'er was accepted by Mr Eddy, who. however, insisted on going into the box and categorically deuying all the statements made to the effect that he had given profitable ofliccs in the Railway department to relatives and friends.

The Queen's Bridge in Melbourne was opened by theGovenior the other day. It is the channel of communication across the Yarra to South Melbourne, and takes the place of the old Falls bridge. It is a very handsome bridge, of great width, and, like Princes Bridge higher up, carries the tramway lino.

—Tho Emperor William has ordered a newyacht of extraordinary speed. The Emperor proposes himself to command this yacht on the occasion o£ the naval review of. the German fleet. The price of this splendid yacht, not including; tho cannon, is over live millions of marks, and it will be capable of receiving the Emperor and liis suite, besides a largo number of ollicers.