MORE BONDS AND ^TOOH FINANCE^^ 145 



during the coming ^dull season' — say June to August. — at 

 tiie same rate, 3.65, as before; and private sale, in my judg- 

 ment, is the best way to accomplish the most favorable 

 results. 



"You recollect Mr. Morgan told me he would take the 

 whole two and a half millions at private sale, but he would 

 not go into competition for an issue of that size. ^ 



"There has been no perceptible change in the underlying 

 conditions as to rates of interest in the moneyed centres. 

 English consols touched the highest price last week they 

 have ever sold for. The demand for high-class bonds was 

 sho^vTL the other day, when Brooklyn's million and a quarter 

 loan, 3.50 bonds, were bid for two or three times over 

 above par. 



"All there is in making a good sale of bonds now is, first, 

 a good bond; second, the right method of handling iV 



I was free to confess then, as since, my inability to grasp 

 even the possibility of advantage to the taxpayers of Essex 

 County from the proposition for them to pay in $5,250 

 extra every year for thirty years (the average life of the 

 bonds) in interest, for the privilege of having a sinking 

 fund of $72,900 in the hands and under the control of the 

 sinking fund commissioners of the Board of Freeholders, 

 instead of the $5,250 each year being saved and retained in 

 their (the taxpayers) own pockets. That the bonds of a 

 3.65 interest rate were then saleable "at not less than par," 

 as provided in the park charter, was manifestly shown by 

 the Messrs. Seligmans' bid of 100.28 for the whole 

 $1,500,000 issue. 



''MODERN" HIGH FIITAIJTCE.'-' 



What the actual loss to the people of Essex County by 

 the issuance of those bonds at four per cent, and the addi- 

 tional $2,500,000 of bonds since issued for the parks at that 

 rate instead of at the 3.65 rate, as with the first million 

 issued, may, I think, be properly left to the future and for 



