FINANCIAL STABILITY

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 144, 15 December 1922, Page 6

FINANCIAL STABILITY

Speeches made by chairmen or presidents of banks and similar institutions generally are, and certainly ought always to be, well considered beforehand. No doubt that delivered by Mr. George Elliot to the shareholders of the Bank of New Zealand to-day was no exception. It did not minimise the gravity of the financial situation of the Dominion early in last year. In fact, Mr. Elliot described it as "a financial crisis, the severity of which could only be estimated by those responsible for the financing of the whole country's business." Of two courses open to the banks in the difficult circumstances that arose two years ago, they took the one that, in their judgment, was in the best interests of the public. This course, Mr. Elliot 'admitted, involved the Bank of New Zealand in losses on advanoes made to farmers and farmers' organisations, whereas " almost all the business houses in the Dominion weathered the storm with a success that reflected the greatest credit on - the financial stability of the country:

. . . and little had been lost on advances made to commercial houses and traders."

If the iarmers are to be regarded as " the backbone of the country," it looks very much—in the experience of the Bank of New Zealand— as !if the banks are performing functions analogous to those of the spinal cord. There can be no question as to the seriousness of the financial difficulties of 1921-and 1922, and it is by no means clear that 1923 will be remarkable for its freedom from anxiety, especially on the withdrawal of certain legislative props now temporarily upholding shaken structures. But there .was an omission in Mr. Elliot's speech, and, so far as we are aware, in those of farmers and their spokesmen. No note of thankfulness was struck for the phenomenal favours New Zealand has received these past few years. The seasons have been wonderful for their freedom from all serious natural hindrances to prosperity. Nature has been bountiful beyond measure. Crops have been abundant, flocks prolific, herds free from disease, feed plentiful to the point of luxury, and all this has been taken for granted. Surely to ,such beneficence the country in large part must owe its emergence from the slough into which it had floundered. The fact is worth recognition, if nothing more. All that >is now to be \ wished for is .political and industrial stability in order that the country may fully benefit by : its remarkable natural advantages.