Greymouth Evening Star. AND BRUNNERTON ADVOCATE THURSDAY, MAY 7th., 1931. TOO GREEDY BANKS ?

Greymouth Evening Star, 7 May 1931, Page 6

Greymouth Evening Star. AND BRUNNERTON ADVOCATE THURSDAY, MAY 7th., 1931. TOO GREEDY BANKS ?

pEW in New Zealand would endorse the wild attacks on 'banks / and bankers made so glibly by Australian Labourites, but many here have long been of the opinion , that too great a power rests with banks and prominent financiers. It jinny be true that these magnates exercise their immense influence for public welfare as well as private gain, but the fact cannot be overlooked that in prosperous times, or lean, the banks do very well, the national monetary business. seeming to be with them a case of “heads we win—tails you lose.” It is generally felt that if prudently conducted banking, and the control of credit, is inevitably remunerative, the community should reap more of the advantages.

This opinion is being freely expressed in most countries, nowadays, when the question of adequate credit is so important. Critics of the banks’ power come from all ranks, aristocratic as well as plebian, Tory as well as Communist. A representative comment on the position was that recently made by the Marquess of Tavistock, who when addressing a public meeting on poverty, unemployment, overtaxation, and the way out, said: — “We called ourselves a democracy, yet the all-important question of the regulation of the country’s money supply was left to a little group of cosmopolitan financiers who were not responsible to the people, and whom they neither elected nor controlled. Was it any wonder that we found ourselves in a terrible mess? The wages and salaries paid by industry must inevitably, under the present system, be insufficient to buy all the products of industry. The national credit scheme should take over the right of controlling the supply of currency and bank credit, and should regulate it in such a manner that- there shall always be enough money in circulation to buy all the goods that people needed and that industry could supply. The scheme avoided the evil of currency inflation by controlling prices, by issuing no new money unless it was accompanied or close-

ly followed by an increase of goods, and-by having careful, periodical adjustments between the supply of money and the supply of goods.”

Sir Otto Niemeyer, who recently studied New Zealand’s banking system, has presented his report, and it is said that he, too, , recommends drastic reorganisation, emphasising the desirability of release from the present dominance of the commercial banks. Until the details of Sir Otto’s suggestions are published, comment would be premature, but even so conservative an authority as he, seems to realise that the banks have too great power. Acquisitive where large sums are involved, the banks are greedy over comparative trifles, their motto seeming to be that the customer must always, pay. h Mr. Forbes referred to this doctrine yesterday, when sympathising with the deputation from the Farmers’ Union which protested against the increased bank-charges for accounts. If the banks emulate Shylock in small things, and in non-technical matters that the layman can understand, is it surprising there is a general suspicion that in the larger and more involved transactions —where laymen are for the most part at the mercy of experts, —the banks, under the present system obtain more than a fair share. Banks may with reason ridicule most of Mr. Lang’s propaganda, but their own policy supplies most of what ground there is for his complaints.