Evening Post. MONDAY, JULY 25, 1898.

Evening Post, Volume LVI, Issue 21, 25 July 1898, Page 4

Evening Post. MONDAY, JULY 25, 1898.

THE BANKING MYSTERY. » . ■■■■■ What is this mystery of Ministers regarding the Bank of New Zealand, at which they more than darkly hinted in the debate on the Bankiug Bill on Friday night, and which they persistently refuse to have probed by a properly-constituted authority like the Public Accounts Committee ? Why are they afraid for discovery of the truth ? They are asking for the passage of a measure that will practically place the Bank uuder absolute control of the Government, I'or it will, in terms of the Bill, be controlled by six directors, four of whom will be appointed by the Governor-in-Council, which in this instance, so long as the present Government can hold on to power, will mean the absolute will of the Premier. The Bank will then have become yet another engine for the exercise of an autocratic power, as are the Land for Settlements Acts, the Advances to Settlers, the Railway Services, the Co-operative Labour system, the Land Administration, and the rest. Step by step Parliament is slowly but surely permitting a one man Government to usurp its authority that it may sustain itself in power, at the expense of all the Constitutional safeguards that make for the dignity and power of the Legislature and the freedom of the Democracy. It is amazing, as humiliating, this spectacle of a political " Boss " coming down to Parliament and demanding also full control of a great financial institution, because of certain alleged acts of mismanagement which he refuses to digclose even to a standing Parliamentary Committee, the proceedings of which are not disclosed to the public. There are many members in the House who have hitherto been advocates of a State Bank, some of whom have looked to the time when the Bank of New Zealand would serve that purpose. Now they begin to see that as this country is being governed realisation of their once cherished hope will mean the triumph of the "Boss" rather than the welfare of the people — more spoil.? for " Tammany" rather than the progress of the State. The statements made by the President in his recent letter, and the allegations of Ministers in the House on Friday, are of the utmost gravity, and we do not hesitate to say that those hon. members who, because of Party pressure, will refuse to vote for enquiry, will fail in their first duty to the country. The President of the Bank has said that he is now able to give evidence as to important transactions between the Bank of New Zealand and the Colonial Bank that he would not give two years ago before the Banking Committee. As was truly said on Friday night, it is surely imperative in face of such a statement that the House should have that evidence before it. But Ministers furnished even greater reasons for authoritative enquiry. The Minister for Lands declared that "he had any amount of correspondence in his possession from persons outside the Bank — charts of the Institute all over the colony — showing a deplorable state of things so far as the management of the Bank was concerned. . . . He knew that the Bank of New Zealand was not in a satisfactory position at the present time, and that it would never do to leave it where it was. 3 ' And yet the Government would burke enquiry ! Referring to the balance - sheet of the Bank, it appeared to Mr. Duthie that there was an asset of £68,000 with really nothing behind it, and in the same direction the Hou. John M'Kenzie said the balance-sheets " did not go the leugth of giving the whole truth and nothing but the truth," and yet Ministers oppose enquiry ! Mr. Ward loudly proclaims that he is not afraid to meet the President before a Committee, and says that at the time of the banking legislation he knew members who received consideration from the Bank of New Zealand. How comes it then that he does not ask for enquiry? " The Bank might be perfectly safe," says the Premier, but "there was an uneasy feeling, and that feeling was iv the House and in the colony." Yet all these things notwithstanding, there shall be no enquiry, says the Premier. Leave it tome to appoint a new Board ; don't think of verifying these things by official investigation. It will be much easier to put blind confidence in my intentions, and you can be assured that mj r best efforts will be at the service of Parliament and the country, to purge this institution of all abuse. And the marvel of it is that though, he has played the confidence trick so often, there are yet some spectators who are content to be duped. Others there be who are base " buttoners " in the game. The country iv its own time will mete out their reward.