FRENCH CAPITAL.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5765, 8 January 1897, Page 1

FRENCH CAPITAL.

PARIS FINANCIERS AND THE •COLONY. A MISSION OF INVESTIGATION. [From Our Correspondent.] WELLINGTON, Jan. 7. You have no doubt heard of the institution known in Paris as the Banque Francaise de l'Afrique dv Sud. The French Bank of South Africa sounds far off, but it has been brought nearer by the arrival in this colony of a representative ■who may not improbably have come to stay. M. Strop, who is now in Wellington, represents that institution in Australia and New Zealand. The paid-up capital of the bank is two millions sterling, ; its directory includes some of the most influential financial names in Pai is, its original scope was South African mining investment, but this was extended gradually to other mining fields, South America at first and Australia following. The next enlargement was of the area, and for mining was substituted every kind of investment. Tho fact is, it is explained that the plethora of money, acting upon the dearth of investment, stimulated by the prospects of large yields in. the produce markets in the antipodes, has driven French capital outwards. Hence it is that we have the Chairman bf the Paris Bourse (M. Herbaux) resigning his position to become president o£ this Bank of South Africa, that we see on the directory M. Duval, the head of the Company T^hich controls the nvhole of the vast beetroot sugar industry of the republic and others at the head of the iron and textile industries of France. The effect of this variety of combined influence on the various fields of production in the colonies can easily be imagined. 'For the present M. Strop's ostensible object is the examination of various gold properties on the West Coast, and he has a colleague, a M. Gascorl, who i$ making a similar investigation in the Auckland district. ' These visits are the results of the excellent reports on mining matters sent home by the French Consul here, Count Jouffray d'Abbans.' As he has sent similar reports of many other lines, we may expect to see the scope of the delegates extended very shortly. . That, indeed, is M. Strop's own opinion ks indicated in a newspaper report here. It is, at the same time, an open secret here that there is at this present moment in Paris the prospectus of a great company of two millions on exactly similar lines for New Zealand, to be called, the Banqus Francaise des Antipodes. This French Bank of the Antipodes will be prepared to do business in all possible lines in the most extensive way. I expect shortly to hear of its successful flotation after the dull season of the Christmas holidays.