Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1894. THE LOAN AND MERCANTILE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 6896, 7 February 1894, Page 2

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1894. THE LOAN AND MERCANTILE.

We have received a copy of the reconstruction" scheme of the Loan and Mercantile Agency Company. It is one of the most elaborate documents of the sort we have ever seen. The past Bnancial arrangements of the Company were of a very complicated character, and hence the necessity for judgment, skill, and care m drawing up the proposed arrangement. The result is a well-matured scheme, which is no doubt the best devisable to meet present circumstances and to provide for futrue contingencies. It should be most earnestly hoped that everybody who has a voice m the matter will agree to accept the scheme m its entirety. Any strong attempt at an alteration might resulb m the whole affair breaking down, and thus send the Company into actual liquidation, which would be an exceedingly bad thing for the colony. How any shareholder can hesitate m accepting the arrangement passeth understanding, except he wants to leave the country, incur heavy loss, or go through the Insolvency Court. To discuss the scheme m detail would be tedious and useless work. There has been delicate balancing of the interests of different kinds of creditors, from Baron Schroeder with his big mortgage, which ranks first, down to tho unsecured colonial creditor for a small sum. The Baron has been the stumbling block all along. He has steadily refused to relax his grip m any degree, and no one should blame him for standing fast to his own interests. The course of the shareholders is clear. Failure to reconstruct, means an immediate liability of L 22 10s per share. Reconstruction means a call of L 5 10s spread over two years, with an excellent prospect that the whole of the subscribed capital will earn a fair rate of interest, and that the saleable value of the stock before long will be equal to the actual cost. As we have previously remarked, the strain will be at the outset. No doubt some of the shareholders will be unable to tide over the difficulty, but most probably the great majority are m position to meet the demand, and save themselves from serious loss. Once tho company again gets on its feet, its future will be as well assured as that of any other monetary institution doing business m these colonies. The splendid business everywhere has been well retained. The Loan and Meroantile suspended m July last, and everyone believed that unless there was speedy re-construction, there would be great loss of business. This conjecture has turned out incorrect. A return published m the Australasian of the Melbourne wool sales for the last four years (October to December) gives the following figures : — Loan and Mercantile, 1890, 36,810 bales ; 1891, 48,066 bales ; 1892, 58.888 bales ; 1893, 60,800 bales. Thus there has been an actual increase. Tho return shows that the Loan and Mercantile, as brokers, handled a larger proportion of Victorian wool last season than the company ever did before. For ihe first time it hpaded the lißfc of selling brokers m Melbourne. No figures are yeb available for New Zealand, but we have gond authority for stating that the business m

this colony has also been well retained. Really, the Loan and Mercantile is still a going concern. That it is so, is a matter which reflects great credit on the directors and managers of theinstitution, and should go some way to condone past mistakes.