Mr Ward s Bankruptcy.

Feilding Star, Volume XIX, Issue 30, 4 August 1897, Page 2

Mr Ward s Bankruptcy.

(Per Press Association) DITNEIHS', Allgnst 2. Tue reasons for the sale to the Bank of New Zealand are then briefly ox j plained by Mr G McLean, these being — (1) The great, anxiety expressed by the shareholders iv respect of tho liability of their sharps; (2) Inrge numbers of shares beiug rushed on the market, a j fact which seriously endangered the j Bank ; (3) the drain on deposits, but |4) chiefly the state of the Bank of New Zealand, an until that institution was i put right any action taken to reorganise ; tho Colonial Bank might prove abortive, j and the Bank of New Zealand, the Hon > Mr McLean contends, could not be put right without additional earning power. To show that the purchase was a good j one for the Bank of New Zealand, the '■ statement concludes : "I desire to point out that the course I took in 1892 94 in telling the nbareholders of the state of ; tho dead assets of the Bank was one, I I believe, no other chairman of a bank | would have dared to take at that time. \ My speeches on these occasions were ' reported iv the newspapers and copies : posted to each shareholder. Leading shareholders expressed satisfaction, and no shareholder took exception. I havo only to add that the period preceding the sale of the Bank was the most I wearying and anxious one of my life. ! I never knew at uight but that next: morniug might bring news which might necessitate the closing of the Bank. Only those at the head of affairs know how dangerously near this contingency I was at this time. I devoted tho greater part of ray lifo to the Company's affairs. No business has, during my life time, cost me the same pains, trouble, worry, and prolonged anxiety, and if the result of the sale should fall so far below what I hoped, and what the estimates of the Bank staff led me to hope, I and other directors share the loss in the same proportion as other shareholders.