be regarded as belonging to the holders of the scrip bearing the same number as such bonds. The following are extracts from the prospectus.

"A sinking fund of 24 per cent. upon the nominal amount of the loan, increased by the interest on the bonds from time to time paid off, will be applied to the redemption of the loan at par, by half-yearly drawings. The drawings will take place in the months of February and August, the bonds being advertised in the usual way, and being paid on the 1st of the following March and September, when the interest on the bonds will cease. The first drawing will take place in August next, the drawn bonds being paid on the 1st September next. The Government reserves to itself the right to increase at any time, and from time to time, the amount to be applied in any year to redeem the bonds. The surplus of the amount so applied beyond the sinking fund for the year is to be employed in purchasing bonds in the market, if under par, and in redeeming bonds by drawings if the market price shall be at or above par; all bonds so purchased or drawn to be cancelled in the like manner as if redeemed by the ordinary sinking fund. The law authorising the loan directs that nearly the whole of the proceeds, after repaying to the Provincial Bank of Buenos Ayres their advances amounting to about £560,000, is to be applied towards the completion of the railway from Villa Nueva to Rio Cuarto (now in course of construction); the extension of the railway from Cordoba to Tucuman; the construction of the works of the Port and Customs warehouses at the city of Buenos Ayres; and the construction of wharves and customs warehouses at the city of Rosario. Almost all the proceeds of the loan are thus devoted to the repayment of an existing debt and to the execution of works of public utility. The principal and interest of this loan are specially exempted from any tax or contribution whatever by the Argentine Government. By the construction of the railway to Cordoba (an extension of the Great Central Railway), and the completion of the line from Villa Nueva to Rio Cuarto, now under construction, the interior will be brought into direct communication with the coast for a distance of 400 miles. All these works will powerfully contribute to the prosperity of the country, the development of its industry, and consequent increase of revenue; the public works and railways now in operation having proved generally very successful and giving good returns upon their cost. On the completion of the projected docks, wharves, and bonding warehouses in the ports of Buenos Ayres and Rosario, the Congress hopes to receive a revenue of about $2,000,000, now believed to be lost through smuggling. The increasing prosperity of the Argentine Republic is strikingly demonstrated by the statistics of the national revenue, which has more than doubled itself in six years. Accor ding to the Government returns, the total revenue in the year 1864-5 was $7,005,328, the expenditure in the same year having been $6,178,390 ; whilst in 1870-71 the total income was $14,950,000, the total expenditure, including the service of all debts and the payment of about $3,000,000 for expenses of the late Paraguayan war, being estimated at $14,387,646. These data furnish legitimate ground for hoping that the ordinary expenditure of the nation, including the service of the present loan, and the other national debts, will be less than two-thirds of the national revenue produced by the actual taxation."

THE NASSJO OSCARSHAMN RAILWAY LOAN.

THE Union Bank of London notified on the 31st March, it was authorised by the directors of the Nassjo Oscarshamn (Swedish) Railway to receive

subscriptions for 1,800 First Mortgage Debentures of the company for £100 each, bearing interest at the rate of 5 per cent. per annum from the 1st January last. The price of issue is £78 for each £100 debenture, payable as follows, viz., £8 on application, £20 on allotment, £25 on the 1st July, and £25 on the 1st September next. The necessary sum to meet the first three years' interest will be at once lodged at the Union Bank. The whole of the debentures are redeemable at £100 each, by means of the redemption fund fixed by the statutes; the sum of £10,800 is to be applied each year in the payment of the interest thereon and of such redemption, which is to take place by annual drawings in London. The first drawing will take place on May 1, 1873. At the price of issue, after deducting accrued interest and the discount on prepayment, the net cost is reduced to £76 each debenture, and the return on the investment is upwards of 6 per cent. per annum. The investor will in addition, on each debenture being redeemed at £100, receive by such redemption a bonus on the net price of subscription of £24 per debenture. The Capital of the Company consists of-1. First Mortgage Debentures, bearing 5 per cent. interest (being those now offered for subscription) forming a first charge upon the railway, in priority to the whole of the share capital, £180,000. 2. Preference Shares, £180,000. 3. Ordinary Shares, £180,000-Total, £540,000. The line, which is 94 English miles in length, commences at the Port of Oscarshamn, one of the largest and best harbours on the Baltic Coast of Sweden, and terminates at Nassjo, where it joins the state line of Gothenburg, thus giving a direct railway communication between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea. Besides the local traffic, the railway will derive a large traffic both from passengers and goods to and from Russia, via Gothenburg, Oscarshamn and Port Baltic in the Gulf of Finland in Russia, whence there is railway communication to St. Petersburgh in a few hours. From England, via Hull, the journey to St. Petersburgh will, by this route, be accomplished in five days, and it will be the shortest postal route.

QUEENSLAND DEBENTURES.

THE Union Bank of Australia, as financial agents of the Government of Queensland, invited on the 19th April tenders for £200,000 debentures, being the balance of a loan of £765,600, issued under an Act of the Colonial Legislature, of which the remainder has been allocated in the colony. The loan is secured upon the consolidated revenues of the colony, and the above balance will be issued in debentures of £500, £250, and £100 each, bearing interest at six per cent. per annum, to commence from the 1st July, 1871, the coupons being payable on the 1st January and 1st July in each year, at the offices of the banking agents in London. Payment of the debentures will be required as follows, viz :-£5 per cent. on application, to be inclosed in tender; a further sum on allotment, to reduce the amount unpaid to £95 per cent.; the balance of £95 per cent. on or before the 30th June next.

THE EAST INDIAN RAILWAY COMPANY.

COMPLAINTS are made of instances of rather rigid practice on the part of the East Indian Railway Company. Their debentures, issued in 1861,

were for five years, with option of renewal till 1871, and of conversion into capital stock at any time previous to that date on one month's notice. They expire on the 1st of April next, and the right of conversion consequently ceased on the 1st of the present month. But as the capital stock has long stood in the market at about 8 per cent. above par, it is plain no holder would have neglected, except through inadvertence, to give the required notice. Cases of such inadvertence were to be expected, especially in the absence of any advertisement on the part of the company, and it appears that instead of meeting them as analogous circumstances would be met by the leading assurance companies and other great establishments, as the results of pure oversight, the company take advantage of the letter of the bond and refuse to forego the full penalty of the accident. Similar cases of oversight have, it is stated, occurred repeatedly with bonds of previous issues, and the parties have in the same way been left to bear a loss, such as may be heavily felt by individuals, while to a large company the profit from their misfortune is inappreciable.

PHILADELPHIA AND READING RAILWAY BONDS.

MESSES. M'Calmont Brothers and Co., announced on the 22nd May that they were prepared to receive subscriptions for £1,400,000 sterling, or 7,000,000 dols. gold, Six per Cent. Consolidated Mortgage Bonds of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company, at the price of £180 per £200 bond, payable by instalments, to extend to the 2nd of October in the present year; £10 was payable on application and £30 on allotment. The bonds bear interest from 1st June, 1871, at 6 per cent. per annum, payable half-yearly. The principal will fall due and be payable on the 1st June, 1911, but an accumulated sinking fund of 1 per cent. per annum will be applied yearly to the re-purchase of the bonds at or under par. If such purchases cannot be effected, the sinking fund is to be invested and accumulated until the maturity of the bonds. Principal and interest will be payable at the holder's option, either in London or at the office of Messrs. M Calmont Brothers and Co., in sterling money, or in Philadelphia in gold, at the rate of 5 dols. per £ sterling, free of all Federal or State taxes in the United States.

SIERRA LEONE BONDS.

THE Secretary of State for the Colonies has authorised the borrowing of £25,000 by the Sierra Leone Government, for the purpose of constructing public works calculated to promote the prosperity of the settlement. The price of issue is to be £100 sterling for every £100 in debentures, of which there is to be paid on allotment 10 per cent. and 90 per cent. on the 13th June. The bonds are to bear interest at the rate of 6 per cent. per annum. The principal will be repaid in 25 years from the date of issue out of a fund to be formed in this country, under the control of trustees appointed by the Secretary of State for the Colonies, into which a sum equal to 2 per cent. per annum on the total amount of the debt will be paid by half-yearly instalments. The loan is secured on the revenues and assets of the local government, and is made a primary charge.

MIDLAND RAILWAY OF CANADA BONDS.

MESSRS. E. F. Satterthwaite and Co. offered for subscription on the 19th May £235,000 First Mortgage Bonds of the Midland Railway of Canada, repayable in 30 years, and bearing 6 per cent. interest, payable in London, and redeemable at par by a sinking fund of 2 per cent. per annum, and annual drawings, to commence in 1873. These bonds form part of an issue of £335,000 authorised by Act of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario passed on the 14th February last, and required for the purpose of cancelling all classes of existing bonds, and paying off the company's floating debt, incurred in constructing extensions recently opened for traffic. The £100,000 balance is intended to be issued in respect of the further extensions of the company's line to St. John's Lake and Georgian Bay, and the proceeds expended as the works of the new line are carried on. These bonds are expressly declared by the Act to be the first charge upon the undertaking. The bonds will be for £100, and issued at the price of £85, of which there must be paid-on application, £5; on allotment, £15; on the 15th July and the 15th August each £20; and £25 on the 15th September. These bonds, at the price of issue, will yield an interest of £7. 1s. 2d. per annum, not taking into account the sinking fund.

SOUTHERN RAILWAY OF IRELAND.

MESSRS. Field, Wood and Haynes, of Warnford Court, invited subscriptions on the 4th May for 16,700 Six per Cent. Preferred Half-shares of the Southern Railway of Ireland, in 835 certificates of 20 shares each, equal to £100 stock each certificate, on the following terms-viz., £10 payable on application, £15 on allotment, and £25 each on the 31st July, the 30th September, and the 30th November. The main line of the Southern Railway (24 miles in length) runs from Thurles, on the Great Southern and Western, to Clonmel, on the Limerick and Waterford Railway; passes through a populous district, abounding in mineral and agricultural produce; and will effect a saving of one-half in distance, and more than one-half in time over the present circuitous route. It will also effect a saving of 24 miles between Dublin and Clonmel. The branch railway (10 miles long), leaving the main line at Laffan's Bridge, will run into the great Slieveardagh coal-fields, which extend over an area of 100 square miles, and contain an inexhaustible supply of coal, of a remarkably strong heating power. Owing to the heavy cost of transport these coal-fields have, up to the present time, been opened to a very small extent. The Great Southern and Western Railway Company of Ireland have agreed to provide the rolling stock, maintain the permanent way, and work the railway, at a maximum charge for the main line of 50 per cent. on the gross receipts, such charge to be gradually reduced to 45 per cent. as the traffic is developed. The charge for working the branch line to the collieries will be limited to the actual cost.

NEW SPANISH LOAN.

MESARS. Stern Brothers, of Angel Court, Throgmorton Street, invited subscriptions on the 17th May to Six per Cent. Spanish National Lands

Mortgage Certificates to the extent of £2,622,781 sterling, a similar amount of another series having been reserved for subscription of Spain. The principal is redeemable at par by annual drawings of at least 6 per cent. per annum by the year 1888 at the latest. It is secured by 246,850,000 reals vellon Spanish Government Treasury Bonds deposited at the Bank of England, and by 246,850,000 reals vellon promissory land notes (pagares) of purchasers of national lands deposited at the Bank of Castile at Madrid. The subscription price in London was 80 per cent. of the nominal value, at the exchange of 51d. per dollar, or equal to about 82. The certificates were of 2,000, 10,000, and 48,000 reals vellons, equal at the exchange of 51d. per dollar to £21. 5s., £106. 5s., and £510, with halfyearly coupons attached, payable at Madrid. The certificates will be issued bearing interest from April 1 at the price of £17 sterling per certificate of 2,000 reals, equal to 80 per cent. of their sterling nominal value, payable by instalments as follows-viz., on application £2. 2s. 6d. per certificate of 2,000 reals; on allotment, £1. 17s. 6d. ; on the 20th June, the 25th July, and the 20th August, each £3; and on the 2nd October, £4. The holder of each certificate will be entitled to interest at 6 per cent. per annum, payable half-yearly, the first payment to be made in October next, and to the payment of the principal when drawn by lot in one of the drawings which will take place in February of each year, beginning with February next. The Bank of Castile has received, as a deposit for the present issue, 493,700,000 reals in Treasury bonds, which the Bank of Paris has acquired in pursuance of a contract of the 26th March, 1870, and 493,700,000 reals in pagares of purchasers of national property, appropriated to the complete payment of the said bonds. The Treasury Bonds are created under a decree law of October, 1868, which authorised an issue of 200 millions of escudos, and provided that a sum of 12 millions should be annually devoted to the redemption thereof between the years 1869 and 1888. The rate of interest returned will be about £9. 17s. per cent., without reckoning anything for accelerated redemption out of the proceeds of the pagares.

COSTA RICA LOAN.

MESSRS. Bischoffsheim and Goldschmidt invited subscriptions on the 8th May, on behalf of the Costa Rica Government, to a 6 per cent. loan for £500,000 nominal capital, being issued in bonds to bearer redeemable at par, by means of a cumulative sinking fund of 2 per cent. per annum in half-yearly drawings. The price of issue was 72 per cent. for each £100 stock, payable as follows, viz., 5 per cent. on application, £10 on allotment, £10 each on the 1st July, the 1st August, the 1st September, and the 2nd October, and £17 on the 1st November. The bonds will be issued in sums of £1,000, £500, and £100 each, with coupons payable half-yearly in London. Scrip certificates to bearer will be issued as soon as possible against allotment letters and receipts; and, after payment in full, will be exchanged for bonds to bearer, signed by the Minister of Costa Rica at the court of her Majesty. The loan is secured on the general property and revenues of the Republic of Costa Rica, as well as by the special hypothecation of the customs dues of the State. The existing duties levied at the port of Punta Arenas, one of the custom-houses so hypothecated, amount to double what is required to meet the interest and redemption fund of the loan. At present there is no public State debt,