26th Nov.
We are glad to hear that the meeting of the shareholders in the Chartered Mercantile Bank, to receive the report of the committee of shareholders appointed at the last meeting to confer with the Directors as to the reconstruction of the Bank, passed off satisfactorily, the scheme suggested by the Directors and printed in our columns on Tuesday last being unanimously: adopted. Prospectuses ate to be issued in a few days. We understand that the manager of the bank here is prepared to accept applications for the 5 per cent. preference cumulative dividend shares, it being understood that the new scheme does not differ in any material point from that just referred to, which was issued by the Directors of the Bank on the 12th of October last. We have already pointed out the superiority of these preference shares as an investment, inasmuch as they share equally with the deferred shares in any profits that may be earned after five per cent. has been paid on both classes of shares. At almost every port the East, including India, apprehensions have been expressed at the curtailment of facilities that would follow the total disuppearauce of the Chartered Mercantile Bank; and it is very evident that there is plenty of room for the reconstructed bank, and that its past history and the recognised ability and popularity of its staff have made its continued existence almost a necessity to commerce in the East. It is, of course, a advantage to the bank that its slrares both deferred and preferred, should be distributed as widely as may be among actual and possible constituents; while the uew shareholders are coming into a most valuable goodwill and connection practically free of cost.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.