BANK OF AUSTRALASIA

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 17756, 7 May 1923, Page 10

BANK OF AUSTRALASIA

ANNUAL MEETING IN LONDON. BURDEN OF TAXATION. ' (FEOM OUR OWtf CORRESPONDENT.) LONDON, March 28. "It was the amazing solidarity of all parts or the British Empire that enabled u.s to thwart the efforts of our enemies," said Lord George F. Hamilton, who presided at the eighty-ninth annual meeting of the Bank of Australasia, "l.'pon political solidarity is founded financial confidence and trade activity. It is this sense of confidence whi-.di, during the last few years, has enabled us, in common with many other banks, to augment our capital, to increase our reserves, ami to maintain our dividend. When I contemplate wlui we have done in the past, and the conditions under which we successfully .unmounted our difficulties, I rhin'k we can regard our future troubles with equanimity and assurance. But do not think that we have done with post-war difficulties. Thev will crop up again and again in different shapes and unforeseen directions. Success in the past, however, is a good stepping stone to prosperity in the future." l

The chairman expressed the sense of the loss which the bank had sustained by the untimely death of one of the directors, Sir Harold Stuart. He alluded to the presence at the meeting of Mr C. J. Henderson, Superintendent in Australasia, who, he said, had discharged his duties well. Under a long and trying ordeal Mr Henderson's courage and sagacity had never failed him, "and we—through the medium of the annual meeting—welcome this opportunity of expressing our thanks in his presence for the rr.re and long service that he has rendered to our enterprise." The chairman also referred to the retirement of Sir Walter Jeans. "We now lose him as a general manager, but retain him as a director. It has seldom fallen to the lot of any head of a bank to have his name associated so long and so successfully with the progress and expansion of the institution under his management, and his retrospect of the past ought to be one of unmixed satisfaction. Mr Godward, an official of high standing, and long proved ability, will take over the duties of London manager. "Four words, in my-judgment, "said the chairman, "summarise our past problems—indifferent trading, excess taxation. To improve the one aud to diminish the other should be the object upon which we should all concentrate our attention."

Balance Sheet.

The note circulation was lower by £43,000. The circulation of notes was now confined to New Zealand. Deposits had increased by £57,000. Bills payable were £448,000 less. _ The reserve fund showed an addition of £IOO,OOO appropriation out of profit, and now stood at £3,525,000. Specie was £513,000 less, but loans <at call and at short notice were £103,000 higher. British Government securities had increased by £1,038,000. Government securities of Australasia and other investments were £359,000 less. The total of these four items was £10,717,000, against £10,448,000— an increase of £269,000. Bills receivable and remittances in transit were now shown separately from advances, and they amounted to £3,839,000. Adding this sum to advances, the combined figures were £613,000 less than those of 1921. The bank premises had risen by about £IO,OOO. The cost of rebuilding premises in Threadneedle street had been provided for. The total of the bal-ance-sheet was £334,000 less than in 1921. Increased Profits. Comparing th,e return with that of the preceding year, the balance brought forward was lower by £24,111. This was due to an appropriation in 1921 of £'25,000 to bank premises. The net profits showed an increase of £21,716, but as the whole of the new capital did not rank fully for dividend last year, they had had to provide an additional £32,500 to the dividend then distributed. Salaries in Australasia were £13,000 higher, but the control over these salaries was to a considerable extent regulated by the awards of the Arbitration Courts in Australia. The Australasian general expenses showed a reduction of £15,500, and, including London, of about £14,500. Bates and taxes showed a reduction of £IO,OOO, and stood at £367,613. The total amount of net profit for the year amounted to £620,105 10s sd, to which must be added the balance brought forward from the preceding year, viz., £121,763 Bs, making a total sum available for distribution of £741,686 18s sd. AlO per cent, dividend, and 3 per cent, bonus paid in September last absorbed £260,000 of this amount, and a similar dividend and bonus which it was proposed to pay in this month, would absorb another £260,000. There would also be transferred to the reserve fund £IOO,OOO. Adding these sums together, they left a balance of £121,868 18s sd, to carry forward, as against a balance of £121,763 8a for last year. That was a satisfactory statement, although the comparison between the two years was somewhat prosaic.

Conditions in Australia and N.Z. Mr Henderson said the management in Australia and New Zealand were rather isolated, and it was no sinecure to run a bank without directors to advise except by means of cable* .As regarded the staff in Australasia—and he could not speak for the London staff, because they were not under his jurisdiction—he could assure the shareholders that they were very capable and efficient, and that they all did their best in the interests of the old hank of which he himself had been a servant since he was a small boy.' He had completed fifty-two years, with the bank, and for the last twelve years he had held the post of Superintendent in Australia and New Zealand. He would ask the meeting to accept, on behalf of the staff in Australia and New Zealand, his cordial thanks for their appreciation of their services. On the whole, things were better in Australia. The season was not at all bad. They always had, of course, threats of droughts or partial droughts in Australia; in fact, they were accustomed to those conditions, but New Zealand never had a drought. The season which was coming on in Australia was quite an average one, while at the same time the prices of commodities produced were improving, the laggard being chiefly frozen beef. To a certain extent metals were in the same category. Everything else was quite up to the average, and merino wool, of course, had improved tre- ' mendously. Without being unduly opI timistie, he believed they could look ' forward to a season of reasonable prosperity in Australia, while in New Zeai land the depression was passing away. 1 Therefore, he thought he could include i New Zealand in that hope. I The retiring directors (Mr C. G. Hamilton, the Et. Hon. Lord George F. Hamilton, G.C.5.1., and Mr A. Whitworth) were re-elected.