Peruars the best augury for the success of the gold loan which the Municipal Council is floating, as well as a tribute to its attr tiveness, is to be found in the fact that within a few hours of its announcement in the Gazette, and before the necessary forms were ready, applica-cations had been received from prospective subscribers. Presumably they anticipated a rush on the opening of the subscription list, which takes place to-day, and the old idea of ''getting in on the ground floor " which was no much current in Shanghai a few years ago, appealed to them with irresistible force. That this eagerness will not be confined to one section of the community we do not doubt, and we already have information of local boards of directors resolving to invest in it. For undoubtedly it is a most alluring investment, six percent. in a gilt-edged gold security.
We need not enlarge upon the obvious beauties of the loan from the point of view of investors who favour gold solely. But for the careful investor who wishes to divide his capital between silver and gold, Municipal loans to-day offer the most favourable opportunity. With the flotation of this new issue, the Council has now two loans running concurrently—silver and gold. The average man with moderate capital is as a rule sufficiently caus tious not to lock all his money up in only one medium. Exchange may go up or it may go down, and the fact of there being the two loans in which he can invest means that by apportioning his money between the two he i covered in every way. This is a point on which much emphasis may be laid, for it gives locally an opportunity which has only ocourred on very rare occasions.
s regards the sterling part of the investment we fave suggested above, it means that for ten years at the very least the investor receives a clear six per cent. without any possibility of interference through redemption operations. At the end of ten years the Council has the right to redeem the issue in whole or part, if the latter by drawing, while the full maturity of the loan is thirty years—1950. We believe that the point we have just mentioned will appeal to. the public with considerable force, and is a feature which will make for the success of this flotation of £750,000.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.