BANK OF NEW ZEALAND

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 12683, 22 December 1906, Page 10

BANK OF NEW ZEALAND

. ♦ HALF-YEARLY MEETING. THE END OF THE ASSETS BOARD. (rRKSS ASSOCIATION- TELEGBAM.) WELLINGTON. Deoember 21. Tlio half-y-early mt-uting of the sharehold.™ of tho Hank ol New Zealand was held to-day. Tlie chairman of directors, Mr F. do C. Malet, in IILI speech, said: —"As you are probably aware, our half-yearly general meeting ior some ye are past liayo been moro or less of a formal oIK-ractor. The bank's balance-sheet is ma<lo up for the year as at 31st March, and consequently no figures can be wibmitted to you at this meeting. Our principal function at tho meeting in December has been the election of a director by ths share-hoktars. The director retiring on-'the 31st March next ia Mr William Wat-son, who ia the only candidate for offico, and being eligible for re-election, has given statutory notico of his candidature. I havo pleasure, therefore, in declaring Mr Watson duly elected. Although it is ■not customary to submit a balance-sheet at this meeting, or to deal with, figures in any way, shaj-ehoLtlers will bo pUiasod to know that I am able to continue to report that tlio business of tho bank sliows a vory satisfactory increase under all heads. You will also be gratified to loam that the profits for the half-year ending S«jptember last are greater than those for the corresponding period of last yoar. 1 "It is my pleasing duty to-day te bo able to annonnoo to you that an important epoch in the history of the bank was roaohod on the 17th inst., when, pursuunt to an Ordor-in-Council made by his Excellency the Governor on the 7th inst., the Assets Realisation Board wae dissolved as from Monday last. The amount of debentures issued by the .Assets Realisation Board outstanding on that date waa £458,000. Thrao have sinoo been cancelled, and . the remaining assets of tbe Board para to and vest in the bank in tern**- of the provision of section 23 of the Bank of New Zealand Act, 1903. You i were informed at the annual meeting in June last that tie directors of the bank had jTjiven considerablo thought and consideration to the affairs of the /Insets Realisation Board, being desirous of removing every obstacle in the way of payment to the shareholders Or esome wetter return by way of a larger .dividend than has hitherto been possible, n<nd building np r\ strong reserve fund. With a view of facilitating matters, in connection with the contemplated early dissolution of tho Assets Realisation Board, the directors of the bank took advantage of olause 27 of tho Bank of New Zealand Act. 1003, and requested tho Assets Realisation Board to transfer to the bank all mortgages, contracts and other securities held by that Board as security for unpaid balances of purchase money. The amount of three mortgagee and other contracts on the 81st of July last was £371,410 14a. This sura, together with the accrued intercast (£6061 14a Id), was paid over to the Assets Realisation Board on that date, and the debentures of the Board, /." to the amount of £372,000, were thereupon redeemed, thus reducing the outestanding debentures from £855,000, as ot 31st March, 1906, to £483.000. It may be of interest to state here that -when the/Assets Board was set np in tebe year 1895, the value of the debentures issued by the Board was _J9,f180,285. Following upon this, the Board of Directors requested the chief ■oditor of the bank, in tonne of clause ffl of the Bank of New Zefaland Act, 1909, to cause the properjtiea vested in tha Assets Board to be Valued. The chief auditor hn_aediater_f took action, •nd Mewed competent and reliable vahieni to value the whole of the land-ed-properties, live and dead stock, etc., ■vwed in the Assets Realisation Board, alt at 31st July last. The roport by the diief auditor on -the valuation obtained by him at the instance of the Board „ Jf Difectora, waa handed in to the j-eneral manager of the bank on the 90th e# eSentontber last, and was immediately forwarded to the ValuerGeneral for his information, as provided for. in the Act already referred to. On the 24th October, the Valuer-General's certificate in respect to the pTopertiee vested inJthe A<s»ets Realisation Board as at 31st July was received. On the basis of the ValuerGeneraTs certificate, the total assets aa at 31st July amounted to £610,085. Ute liabilities of tbe Assets Realisation Board at the same time amounted to £489,661, showing a surplus of £20,424. Tie Vaiuer-eGeneral's certificate was at 1 ' onoe forwarded to the Premier, with a request that aa the assets were more than sufficient tomeet outstanding liabilities of the Assets Realisation Board at the date of the valuation, it would be good enough to obtain on Order-in- / Council ediasolviflg the Asseta Board in . terms of section 23 of the Bank of New Zealand Act, 1903. This authority waa given on the 7th inst., as already statad,ond ftom the 17th inst. tbo Assets . Board eeaeed to exist. ''Apart from its effect upon the future pruppcts of the bank from the shareholders' point df view, the extin- , guishment. of the Asseta Board also covers the discharge of the contingent liability of £2,680,28S incurred by the country ur 1895, when that Board was _.. first constituted. I take this oppor- . tunity to congratulate the shareholder!, the bank, and the country, on the satisfactory odmpletion of the transao -■"■• tk>«. Tlio properties taken over from the Assets Board will be administered* ... by the bank, with a view to their early realisation. •, "The restrictions imposed by statute with regard to tho appropriation of the profits of the bank having now been removed by tho dissolution of tho Assets Realisation Board, the directors are ' satisfied that the profits of the bank for the half-year ended 30th September last justify tbem in declaring on interim dividend of ii per wnt. The Board of Directors havo acecordingly passed a resolution te pay such dividend. Tho i dividend will be payablo on and after the 14th pros, to ordinary shareholders, those names appear on the register at this date. In respect to preference shares issued by the Crown, in terms of the Bank of New Zealand Act, 1908, an interim dividend of 5 per cent, is neyaible on these shares also, should a-further 5 per cent, be paid te ordinary shareholders in respect of the profits for the year ending March 3Jst next. This will make 10 per cent, for tho year. Payment for that period to preference shareholders will bti 21 por cent., in addition to the 5 per cent, now paid, making a dividend of 71 per cent, on preference shares for the year, as provided by paragraph E, section 10 of the Bank of New Zealand Act already referred to. "In terms of tho conditions under which he took office, Mr Michie retires from the active service of the Bank at March 31st, next. In view of his retirement, tho board has considered the question of appointment of his successor, and I havo plensnre in announcing to you that Mr William Calender has been appointed general manager of the Bank, the appointment to take effect on the 31st March next. Mr Calender possesses nn intimate knowledge* of the Bank's business, famed during ft service o| 2ft yearfcv lo has acted as inspector and branch .*-,v-y : .e> manager, and haa al«> had a long ♦*- Serience in the bend office while for lie hat three, yerr* ho has held, under V'.'&fW'PPfO'tni'Ait-rtf-the Government, tho VWja-fflco erf chief auditor.af the bank; vvveVv .;■'■'■ ■'. ■ •■■ ' .• , . •' ■.

Mr Callender is well known to the staff personally, and to many of tbe customers of the bank, and the directors havo every confidence that under his management tho business of the bank will bo efficiently and safely conducted "It does not come within my province to make any announcement with regard to the appointment of the chief auditor, that being a matter which is entirely in the hands of the Government of tho day. It has become public property, however, that the appointment ha. been offered amd accepted by Mr B. M. Litchfield, th'o manager of the Christchurch branch, one of our oldest and most trusted officers." The Chairman also took tbe opportunity of welcoming back te the colony Mr Harold Beauchamp, who had been on a visit to tho old country, and taken part w>tt» in London in the deliberations of the Board there. It was, bo added, a good and whole<some thing for th© directors to transfer themselves occasionally to other parts of the globe, and thus'gain experience of which tho Bank received the benefit. During the discussion which followed on the Chairman's address, Mr Beauchamp said that while the shareholders wero rejoicing in the dissolution of the Assets Board, he hoped they would bo satisfied with moderate profits till they built np a reserve fund that would make the bank the strongest in Australasia. It would be the duty of the directors te endeavour te attain that end before they thought of declaring higher divideends than ten per cent, per annum on ordinary shares. They bad been singularly successful, but they could not of course always hope for fat years. They ought to endeavour in good timos te create a reserve fund. It was highly probable that out of tbo profits accruing in the next decade they would wipe out the remaining £1,000.000 of debentures due to mature in 1914. Mr Weston also referred to these debentures. Tlie next step for the Bank te take was to clear the million guarantee of tho Government. That fell duo in 1914, and with the cordial co-operation of every member of the staff", -which they had had in the past, and confidently expected in the future, they ought to have np difficulty in building up a resorvo fund from the earnings of the Bank which would be sufficient te discharge that liability at tho due date. A vote of thanks waa carried to the directors and staff.