New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1870-07-22

O41 = VOO0C&As--Ox = xOAA
IA portion of the proceedings of the CT
) Council in regular session July 10, throua
the misdelivery of the copy, was omitte
from the official report published in yeste
days REPUBLICAN,. The omission is mo-
The Floating Debt.
Mr.. Shaw presented the following ord
nance:
An ordinance providing for the opening {
bids from floating debt holders, in e,
schange for bonds
Be it ordained by the Council Of the cit
| of New Orleans, That holders of the flOa
ing debt are invited to make bids for bond
of the three million issue, payable in Gel
tificates of floating debt, the Council Of tn
city reserving the right of accepting sal
certificates in payment to the extent o
seventy five per cent or more. Allowance t
be made in favor of the city, for interes
on bonds to date of exchange. Holders t,
retain their certificates for the unpait
balance. All bids to be addressed to TIN
Bank of New Orleans, Administrator O
the floating dept.
In moving the adoption of the ordinance
Mr.. Shaw expressed the opinion that THU
was step which should have been taker
some months ago.
| Mr.. Walton said he had no desire to CD
pose the plan of giving the creditors of the
city the opportunity of taking the floating
debt bonds in payment of their claims. He
agreed with the Administrator of Accounts
in thinking this was a course which should
have been taken three months ago. But he
objected to the pro rata provision. He
thought that could not be carried out The
true policy. in his opinion, was for the city
to get as much for her bonds as she could,
and to settle with each creditor as he came
in. The division Of the certificates was i'm
practicable.
Mr.. Shaw replied that it would lie with
the Council to accept the bids or not If it
was found inexpedient to divide the certifi-
Gates for the small amounts, the Council
would not accept bids in that form. The
ordinance was perfectly safe as it stood.
Mr. Pierce said it seemed to him the
Council would not get as high bids by ad-
yertising for a pro rata sale as they would if
they proposed to give bonds for the whole
amount of the creditors claim. 1t was left
to the city to give seventy-five per cent or
more, and the creditors, in making their
bids, would take the lowest amount as their
basis
Mr.. West said he had listened with much
attention to.the remarks made by the Ad-
Of Finance and Police. and he
would like to ask them if their arguments
were not to this effect: That it would be
desirable to pay the whole amount if we
had the money to do it with. The Council |
were allowed three million dollars to liaui- |
late the floating debt, and the question
arose whether they had the right to dis
tinguish or give preference to one holder |
over another In order to prevent this the |
INIT was put at seventy-ive per cent, or so
much more as the Council might be able to
,llow. The result would be that, after the
had exhausted the amount
lllOwed them, the creditors must seek re-
lress from the Legislature. He had heard
rom neither of the two gentlemen any bet
er plan proposed.
Mr.. Emley said he had always concurred
With the Administrator of Finance in his
Jews on this question. He thought the
;ouncil had nothing to do with any pro rata.
We could not hope to ascertain within the
ext ten years the exact amount of the
ividend to which each creditor was equita-
ly entitled, according to the scheme pro-
Ounded by the Administrator of Accounts.
the Legislature had ordered the Council
, wait till every item of the debt had come
/, and then to strike pro rata, the scheme
ould be somewhat practicable. ALI we
nd to do was what the law required us to
D, namely: When the evidences of indebted
ess were presented and passed, to give bonds
exchange for them. Long before all these
)nds could be taken up in exchange, the
legislature would be in session, and pro-
sion could be made to meet the balance of
e indebtedness. Of course there was in
lligence enough in the community to know
at the Council had not means enough to
Get all the floating debt. A start had
en made in the way of exchange, by the
ceptance. of the Gas Company.s bid at
yhty-two and a half-let it be understood :,
at creditors who came in at this figure,
at larger figure, could have bonds for !,
cir claims. In this way much higher
ice would be realized than could be
tanned by any other mode of exchange.
rites would know that if they did not :.
me in readily and take the bonds at
II figure, they would be obliged to wait. =
'ntlemen might think this was forcing a
but it was a fair course to take. y
d in direct compliance with the law. =
Mr.. Walton asked what injury the n
EDITOR left out would suffer. He had his !,
ven per cent certificate, and the Council n
opposed to settle with seven per cent II
nds. How much worse off was he with a Il
zen per cent certificate than with seven Z,
r cent bond! If the city was bankrupt, a.
these three million of bonds were all
1t were to accrue to the creditors this +;
rata provision would be a very proper n
;. But as the Council was forced to give
seven per cent certificate, which was in 81
lsically worth as much as a bond, he saw
injustice at all to any of the creditors in II
t getting as much as we could for the W
Ids, and then leaving to the unpaid credi- u
s seven per cent certificates. AS soon as n,
Legislature met these certificates could Ia
changed for bonds. By pursuing this a
lrse the city would save, at the very o,
1T, two or three hundred thousand dol O,
5. As far as making pro rata division
the bonds at seyenty-fve per cent was til
lcerned, it could not be done. and he r.