BANKS AND POLITICS

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 144, 15 December 1922, Page 4

BANKS AND POLITICS

SUPPRESSION OF FACTS

UNFAIR CRITICISM RESENTED.

Eeference was made to criticisms of the banks during the recent elections by the chairman of the Bank of New Zealand (Mr. George Elliot) to-day in addressing shareholders.; "We feel called upon (he said) to reply to the unfair criticism, to which the bank has been, subjected during the recent Parliamentary election campaign by many of the candidates, who advocated the establishment of a State Bank; at the same time, we recognise that the ramifications of finance are so extensive and far-reaching in their results as not to bn easily understandable by those who have not the opportunity of acquainting themselves at first hand with the real position of affairs. It would be well for the public to remember that the criticism of .inexperience is necessarily af little value, and it should therofore be largely discounted. We do not resent fair criticism, but we do object to wilful misrepresentation through the suppression of known, facts, which, if stated, would put an entirely different complexiou on the position. For instance, it is well known that the banks in this Dominion are far more heavily taxed than are any other taxpayers in the country, or even in the Empire. It is simply wilful misrepresentation to compare the interest rate of the banks here with those ruling elsewhere, without taking into account the much more favourable conditions existing outside the Dominion, more especially in the' case of the State Bank of a neighbouring territory which makes no contribution whatever to the Federal or State Governments by way of' income and land tax, and pays no rates to the local authorities. THE COMMONWEALTH BANK. "As a matter of literal truth, every person in Australia has to bear a greater proportion of taxation because tho ComI monwealth Bank pays no taxes whatj ever. It is true the Commonwealth j Bank has, during the ten years of its | existence, made large profits; it no doubt makes fewer losses than other competing banks, for it takes fewer i risks. I '-■ The extent to which in a time of I stress the Bank of New Zealand fulfilled' its obligations to its customers and to the country is revealed in our balancasheet of the 31sfc March, 1921, and we are content to rest on the position therein disclosed. ] ■" Many State industries have been tried in various parts of the globe, and have proved disastrous financial failures. There, is, unfortunately, a, growing inclination to look to the Government to start all kinds of enterprises and to regulate everything by statute. Paternalism in Government has a malign influence on i tlie minds and thoughts of the people; it warps the individual judgment, kills initiative, and destroys that sturdy in-! dependence and self-reliance-- which is necessary to build up a free and independent people. | LAWS THAT CLOG. "Laws which spring from this tenojency of mind clog and obstruct; they lower the power of productivity in individuals, and increase the cost of everything produced. They put sand in the bearings of the industrial 'and economic machine, and they increase the cost of living enormously. Carried to an extreme, they lead to conditions similar to thoso now rulfng in Russia, where a great tragedy-is being enacted; where a /whole nation is in the throes of misery ■'crime; disease, starvation, and deathand where, for a pittance, men and women are forced to work twelve hours a day at the point of the bayonet. It has indeed truly been said that the least governed nation Is the best governed nation.."-