OUR AUSTRALIAN LETTER.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10289, 21 February 1895, Page 3

OUR AUSTRALIAN LETTER.

(From Odii Own Coruesponoknt.)

Mkuiournk, February 13, IMPROVING PROSPECTS.

The Arguß of February 8 publishes a leading articlo which has attracted much attention in commercial and (iimucial circles, and has raised the spirits of this community very considerably. The article deals with the position of the reconstructed banks, and says :—" Distressed, obscure, and rudderless aa the situation appeared to be in the middle of 1893, the short period which elapsed to the clobo of 1804—some 18 mouths — has witnessed a development ns marvellous as it is encouraging." The features of aucouragsmonfc are the successful payment of calls by sbiivehokle.rs and tho reduction of tho liabilities to depositors by the bauks. The reconstructed bulks in 1893 imposed the obligation upon their shareholders to pay up £6,230,956, and the demand uxcited the gloomiest forebodings. Hut it is now found—even after so short a period as 18 months—that against a total of £2,847,675 duo up to 31st December last the amount actually received, including payments in advance of culls, was £3.031,640, or £186,965 in excess of the sum due. It is pointed out by tuo Argus, with justice, that this surprising effort by the community is just as remarkable a fact as the collapse itself. And with regard to liabilities to depositors, the figures of six lar^R banks are taken—one in Sydney, four in Melbourne, and one in Queensland :—"From the statements made in court after the suspensions in 1893 it appears that those, six institutions owed to depositors £48,782,471. But what is the outstanding amount of their extended GODOsit recoipts according to tho latest published balance sheets ; or, in other words, what is the total they have yet to deal with ? The reply is that the sum which th« banks in question now owe to their old depositors is only £31.023,666. a reduction of ao less than £17,758.805 on the original total haviag been effected." Details are given as to the manner in which this reduction has been effected, for which the interested reader must be referred to the article itself. Chi; conclusion is drawn that " the reduction o* liabilities to depositors on so greit a scale constitutes an immensie relief for tho reconstructed banks, and their future course has already been smoothed to a degree which in 1893 would hays been considered incredible." It is natural to expect that by the date when the banks have to meet these creditors, a further amelioration of the position will have taken place, and their task will be more easy than anyone could have anticipated.

The article has been welcomed by the entire community. The Commercial Bank in Melbourne is recognised as th« baiomntar of the financial world in a Urge degree. It-i meeting the other day was very snccesoful. and the chairman, Mr James Service, spoke in hopeful straius. Following so Boon upon this meeting, the m rticle endues the community wita fresh confidence. THE RECIPROCITY TREATY. According to a selegr*m publinae.il here "the commercial treaty with New Zealand is strongly condemued in commercial circles in Adelaide, and is dcioribed as a stab in the dark to the greater scheme, of federation with intercolonial freetrads. It is eomidered not only that it is opposed to federation but that it will prove of little or no benefit in actual trading compared with the antagouißm it is likely to cause in the other colonies." But this view of the matter would seem to be r.n exaggerated one. The feeling in Melbourne is that South Australia has all the best of the bargain, being able to pu»h her wines into New Zealand to the detriment of "Victoria and New South Wales, while New Zealand can only give her a contracted supply of graia in return. South Australia is not and never will bo an extensive customer of Now Zealand. What people here cannot understand is why Sir Ward negotiated with Mr Kingston alone. There would have been aome dense in concluding a treaty with Victoria or New South Wales, with which New Zealand could do a big trade. But Mr Turner, the Victorian Premier, knew nothing about the proposed treaty till he saw it an--1 nounced in the papsrs. Mr Kingston has all the best of the bargain, and has "got at" Mr Ward, undoubtedly, as well »b jockeyed the other colonies. ■

The Victorian Board of Viticulture do not like the treaty, and passed the following resolution yesterday:—"That the board respectfully draw the attention of the Premier to the proposed treaty between South Australia and New Zealand in reference to the free interchange of products of each colony, and point out that snch a treaty will shut out for seven years all other colonies from being placed on the same footing, and further that the treaty will bo a decided drawback to the success of any scheme of federation, and that it is evidently an attempt to exclude Victorian and New South Wales wines from New Zealand, where there is now an important trade."

The view that the treaty will be a decided drawback to federation is perhaps a narrow one. It will rather be an encouragement to it. New South Wales and Victoria cannot afford to be chut out of the New Zealand market, and will be the more eager to push on Federation and an intercolonial customs union, which will, of oouise, abrogate the treaty. From this point of view, therefore, the treaty in a blessing in disguise. Perhaps Mr Ward was cute enough to see that to come to an agreement with South Australia was the best method of forcing the other colonies to come to terms. If so, he is to be credited with a success in diplomacy. Otherwise, one cannot fathom his motives.

THH VICTORIAN RAILWAYS.

There has been a good deal of mystery over the appointment of the Victorian board of inquiry into the railways. The negotiations with Mr Maxwell to act as chairman were broken off in some unexplained way, and it was feared that no board was to be appointed. Now it is announced that Judge Casey is to be chairman, with MrW. Cain and Mr D. Whitley as members. Not much objection can ba taken except to the chairman. Mr Cain is a shrewd business man, and a leading director of the Melbourne Tramway Company ; Mr Whitley is a retired merchant. But the blot is that there is no expert on the board. As for Judge Casey as chairman, the mere suggestion is ridiculous. He is a County Court Judge, a. happy, irresponsible Irishman, with as much idea of how to make a railway pay as he would have of running the British Consoifcition. But there are wheels within wheels. The Age declares the board will meet with the confidence of the commercial community. The great libel action, Speight v. Syme, is not over yet. It would never do for an expert like Mr Maxwell to come here and justify Mr Speight's methods. Mr M'Culloch, M.L.C. (in the Ministry without portfolio), has appointed the board. Mr M'Culloch was treasurer of the Syme testimonial fund, which was raissd to recoup Mr David Syme his costs. Put two and two together and you hava the reason why Mr Maxwell (or some other expert) was shunted in favour of Judge Casey.

A COOLGARDIE SENSATION.

An astonishing story of a combined find of a mountain of gold and wholesale slaughter of natives beyond the Ninety-mile has been published at Coolgardie. Two prospectors named Michael Fitzgerald and William Parry have been arrested at the scene of the find, while Sydney Parry has since surrendered to the police at Hannan's. The story is that Fitzgerald, while engaged in tracking camels, entered a patch of dense forest, in which he sighted an immense outcrop of quartz, every boulder of which showed gold. The blow, which ia 15fb wide at the summit, 250 ft wide, and 70ft high, is described as being full of gold, while the casing is also very rich. His party consisted of eight men, and their samp was raided by blacks. A man named Robertson, who was not of the party but had followed them, has told the police a strange story. He says the party followed the blacks to be revenged on them, and declares that the blacks had been killed wholesale, without regard to age or sex ; that infants had been taken from their mothers and their brains battered out; upon the rocks; that unnameable outrages were perpetrated upon the women, and that the unfortunate savages were slaughtered ruthlessly. The gold specimens shown from the place do not bear out the report of the richness of the stone, and ib is rery probable that the alleged slaughter of blacks is also wildly exaggerated. THE SOUTH MELBOURNE TRAGEDY. Laßt week I gave particulars of the double suicide, as it was then considered, at South Melbourne. A Mrs Perkins and her daughter were found suffocated, as it was supposed, by charcoal. The post mortem on their bodies has thrown a mantle of mystery over the affair. The daughter had been dead only three days, while the mother had been dead seven. They could not have committed suicide together, therefore. At first it was surmised that the daughter had poisoned the mother and afterwards did away with her own life. But an analysis gives no trace of poison in the mother's body and suggests no other cause for her death. The actual cause of death of the mother will probably remain a mystery forever. The neighbours say the pair were very ecoentric. Both of them believed that spirits uned to visit them, and the elder woman told a man named Bing that the spirit of her deceased sister was in the habit of coming to her at night and slapping her face in the dark. The daughter also told him that she had heard the slaps inflicted upon hsr mother, and that she had thrown her arms around her to protect hßr from the unearthly visitants. The two women were in the habit of sleeping together on the same rude couch or makeshift bed, and they generally took the cat to bed with thorn. I Altogether the description of their conduct by j their neighbours shows that they were rery eccentric, if not positively insane*