N.Z. LIKENED TO SCOTLAND

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27226, 18 December 1953, Page 12

N.Z. LIKENED TO SCOTLAND

BANKER MENTIONS SIMILARITIES INTEREST IN FORESTS AND COUNTRYSIDE Declining to be drawn into a discussion of banking questions, a Scottish banker, Mr Kenneth Murray, told a reporter in Christchurch last evening that bankers were naturally canny, and Scottish bankers particularly so. He said, however, that he would go away with a high opinion of many of the financial experts whom he had met in New Zealand.

Mr Murray is chairman of the Royal Bank of Scotland, one of the oldest Scottish banks, which has longestablished connexions with two of the banks trading in New Zealand. He has spent some time in both the North and South Islands during his present visit, and said he ana his wife had had a very enjoyable time. “Belonging as we do to the Highlands of Scotland, we have found so much in common in our two countries,” he said. “We have managed to spend quite a lot of time in the country, as well as in the cities, and have seen something of your forests and your hydro-electric works. Both of these are of such importance to us in the Scottish Highlands, as they must be to you in New Zealand.” Educated at Winchester College and at Oxford University, Mr Murray served in World War I with the Lovat Scouts. He was discharged in 1918 with the rank of captain after being wounded. He is a member of the Royal Company of Archers, which acts as Her Majesty’s bodyguard in Scotland and parades on all formal occasions when the reigning Monarch is in residence at the Palace of Holyrood House. Mr Murray is chairman or director qf a number of institutions and companies. Mr and Mrs Murray will leave Christchurch by Skymaster today for Melbourne, ana will spend Christmas with relatives in the western district of Victoria. They will return to Scotland, by way of Canada, early in the New Year.