“INVESTMENT IN AUSTRALIA”

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29178, 12 April 1960, Page 23

“INVESTMENT IN AUSTRALIA”

Bank’s Reply To Book Review*

A reference in “The Press” to the booklet, “Investment in Australia,” published by the Australia and New Zealand Bank, Ltd, has prompted a comment by the bank's -chief economist in Melbourne, Mr D. H. Merry. Reporting the publication of the book, an article on this page on March 26 said the omission of New Zealand from the title and from the contents of the book “will be noted by overseas clients of the Australia and New Zealand Bank.’’ “We feel sure that there would be no general desire among New Zealand customers of the bank to have New Zealand investment opportunities included in the same book as those relating to Australia,” Mr Merry says in his letter. “The conditions and facilities are so distinct in the two countries as to require separate treatment, while it would be quite unfair to New Zealand’s interests and prestige to be included in a publication which is predominantly about Australia. “We have not yet published a similar book on New Zealand.” Mr Merry says the bank is “very much alive to the possibilities of promoting New Zealand’s investment attractions aboard, and our London office is well supplied with relevant data on the matter,” Mr John MacLeod, recently .appointed as London economist of the bank, was formerly Wellington economist. “It is a major part of his duties to answer questions on the Dominion and to promote the interest of European investors in New Zealand.” Mr Merry draws attention to an article on New Zealand stock exchange developments published in the April issue of the bank's “Quarterly Survey." The "Quarterly Survey” has been widely distributed to the bank’s agents and other interested parties throughout the world, he says.