QUEENSLAND NATIONAL BANK.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 9670, 8 March 1897, Page 5

QUEENSLAND NATIONAL BANK.

MEETING OF CBEDITOES. SOME STBONgTsPEECHES. Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. London, March 5. At a meeting of the creditors of the Queensland National Bank several of the creditors made strong speeches attacking the Bank management, as well as the Queensland Government. Mr Young, a depositor, expressed the opinion that the relations of the Government with the Bank were discreditable. Mr Dence, another creditor, considered the depositors had been unfairly treated. The shareholders received £40,000 in dividends which ought' not have been paid if proper accounts had been kept. Mr Guinness said that the Government account was a curse to the Bank, and had the depositors known that priority was to be given to the Government many would not have given the Bank a shilling.

The Times publishes a letter from a creditor who says that the action of the Bank in taking deposits without notifying that the Government had a preferential claim was equal to obtaining money by false pretences. It was a discreditable act, and public men had hushed up the matter.

The Financial IHmes says that it is deplorable to the Australian trading world that the confidence given to the Bank was chiefly because of the Government's connection with the institution.

The Scotsman says that after the statements made in the Queensland Assembly in 1893 by Sir H. Nelson and Mr Barlow, the depositors had no reason to doubt the solvency of the Bank. As an official had examined the Bank's affairs it was hard to believe that the Government was unaware of the deception practised on the creditors. If the Government was unaware it was incredible. The simple alternative was to assume that the Government knew, but lacked the courage and honesty to own up. The Government was seeking to escape with a whole skin at the expense of the private creditors.