May 11.
Tue present issue of debentures by the Shanghai Municipal Council is highly instructive of the public outlook on investment. The Budget passed by the ratepayers authorized the the Council to issue eight million taels, and on April 27 the first million was placed on the market offering a return of seven per cent.—one per cent. lower than the interest current on -the previous year's loan. Two days sufficed for this instalment of the year's borrowing to be subscribed, and on May 1 a further million was offered to the public. There has not been the same impetuous rush to take up this million as was the case with the first, but we understand that the amount has now been practically all subscribed. In comparison with the first issue of the present year and with what happened a year ago, this second issue may have given rather a disappointing impression, but after all it is no mean financial achievement to pick up that sum of money in so short a time within a limited community such as Shanghai, and really the only element that is lacking is the intense dramatic effect of the others, Of this, how-eyer, more anon. Besides these two public issues the Council has subscriptions to this year's debentures through the Municipal Bank amounting roughly to. a third million—an eloquent tribute to the success of this institution. Finally, over and, above these sums, an offer of conversion in the case of loans maturing this year has been made, and this is **/expected to bring in another million and a half, more or less. These loans are the 1902 issue of Ts. 139,500 and the short-term debentures of 1917 totalling Tls. 1,381,000. With, accordingly four and a half million taels either in hand or in prospect, the immediate needs of the Council are believed to be satisfied and the chances are that the money market will be given a breathing space before being asked to tackle the balance.
No reference to Municipal loans would be complete at the present day without some appreciation of the work of the Municipal Savings Bank. Originally the belief was that it would attract the individual whose savings were as small as twenty or fifty dollars a month, and its ambitions did
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.