BANKING

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LIV, Issue 9025, 3 November 1925, Page 7

BANKING

[ THE LABOUR PARTY'S | MANIFESTO. | Much Ivis been talked l>y many f (Mildidates during (he present pc- | lilical campaign regarding bank- ; 1 !;g -as Mr Coulter puts it, with I evident relish “hanks and the big ; commercial interests” —and the I Labour Party’s manifesto ha ; ; much to say on the subject. The 1 Nd w Zealand Times. commenting : editorially' on the matter says: 1 “The Labour Party's manifesto has so much to say about banking and says it in such cocksure fashion . that one expects before long to see Mr .Holland and Mr Hickey 7 con trolling the. Rank of New Zealand, transformed into “the State Rank, vice all the other banks , ,u the scrap-heap, with all the rest of the ex-properties of the a b 0 1 isl 1 e < 1 c ap italic s. “Tins dream is re-ally suggested by the various recent references to banks in general and the Rank of New Zealand in particular. ‘ 1 Look a! t in:> out op us! ” t hey , erv in effect, with i’-s unprincipled 1 <)•_’■! gorge of profit, no less than £1,089,609! A noble sura tor distribution in good works, and ■ first in replacing the recent salary cuts of the Civil Service. And hidden under the scales that weigh all this gold in the camouflage room of the hank rhe party and ts leaders see other most profitable j sources of income. } “Evidently they think rhe figures of 1924 are permanently established on (hat basis oi 1924, and bound to increase by leaps and bounds under Labour management. Rut at this early stagy; of prediotionary en joyment I hey come nP against the fact that the total profit for 1924 was exceptional. For example, it included £148,000 made by + he realisation of British | Government securities which had £ll i predated in value, and £184,000 of moneys set aside for contingent losses which did not occur. The Labour leaders will probably dismiss this with fine contempt as a mere aggregate of £332,000. But the mere aggregate represents an error too serious for the \

| basis l a dream of hiszh finance so well understood of the Labour leaders. i I' l I heir anticipatory gloating. ■ these dreamers ol dreams and telL j ers of tables omit to notice that 1 the bank employed seven millions y |ot i 1 s own/ money in its business >- (to which fhey charged nothing for - i interest or dividend purposes. How h they propose to got capital on such g terms, they do mi say. Do e ’they propose to pay anything for 1 ‘ the use ol seven mil lions when c they take it over? Ask Mr Trotg fi ky. “Most banks set aside special re- i ) serves against bad times, and the j } Bank of New Zealand can. so far - as wo can see. be no exception, r J Will the heaven-horn new mana--7 I gers discontinue this practice, so . as to maintain {he hulk of point that, goes hum the maw of rhe j octopus—-i he one substituted for i him six scrapped on the Socialist i I altar? "The other day a. Labour ora- | tor contrasted the 6.1 per cent, on overdrafts here with the 4 per j cent, he, alleged to be the English , charge, and a[, unco "ran amok.” j lie mistook this for the Bank of I England rate, last quoted, but j that did not stop the spluttering ot j his criticism. : “When he learns that the above rate applies to short currency bills, certain absolutely of being met on due date, will he ask his new chairman and general mana- * L gei to fix a better basic wage for ! these downtrodden traffickers in } short dates on whom the capitalist ootopus 'of high finance battens? Or will he have the rate lowered for overdrafts not always to he collected at a moment’s notice “It does not appear that Labour is yet sufficiently experienced tobe able to manage banking in a„ ( manner quite after the standard of dreams.’'’ t | There are a good many oandi- f' ( dates besides those representing -j Labour who have the same hazy j ideas about hanking.

Seventy-one per cent, of Brftish land is until led, 57 per cent, of French, 53 per cent, of German, 96 per cent, of .Norwegian. j