The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE Published every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday Morning. Thursday, December 19, 1889. BANK’S TROUBLES.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 393, 19 December 1889, Page 2

The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE Published every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday Morning.

Thursday, December 19, 1889. BANK’S TROUBLES.

Be just and fear not; Let all the ends thou.ftim’st at be thy oountry’a, Thy God’a, and truth’s.

The assertions made by Mr Buckley at the last meeting of the shareholders of the Bank of New Zealand appear to have created a sensation in London, as there was little doubt would be the case when the newspapers containing a report of the meeting reached England by mail. It is another proof of the aphorism that it is much easier to do misthan do good. Had the first OTWticsures been made sit the props—time and not postponed until action was compelled by the vigorous attacks of one or two independent newspapers, the colony would not have been discredited in the way it has been owing to the state into which the Bank’s affairs were allowed to drift, and colonists would not have had thrust upon them the burden of paying annually many thousands of pounds of interest on millions of money borrowed really for the accommodation of a few powerful persons behind the scenes. But things have been allowed to take a strange course, and therefore the affairs of the Bank cannot be expected to get righted in the ordinary way. Had the difficulty been grasped in time the path would-have been comparatively smooth and easy. Being wise after the event is, however, not much satisfaction, and when colonists become convinced that a genuine reform has been attempted and only requires time to consummate its success, it is the duty of each one of us to endeavor to sustain the credit of the colony as a whole. It may be taken for granted that there was a substratum of truth in tha charges made by Mr Buckley, though coming from that gentleman they would at once induce us to look for secondary motives. The whole truth being made known will be certain to result in ultimate good, notwithstanding that the Bank’s work must be hampered for some time. It is far better that the charges should have come upon the London shareholders as they have done, to be taken for what they are worth, than for them to have leaked out in an ominous and suspicious form, increasing in mischeviousness the greater d istance they travelled, and being circulated in such a way as to be difficulate or impossible to refute. Even by the cablegrams we can judge how quickly confidence was restored after the first surprise was got over. It is the custom for New Zealanders to abuse such papers as the Financial News for the merciless way in which they assail the colony, but we think those journals are deserving of thanks in place of abuse. It is well known that for months no heed was paid to the warnings conveyed by the few New Zealand journals which dared to speak ojit in regard to the Bank of New Zealand’s affair?, and it will in the future be a great check' on anything so unsatisfactory to knqw that the cql'qnjds affairs are being closely watched by able critics ready to seize any weak point and turn it to our disadvantage. The chastising may not always be pleasant, and may sometimes be unjust, but tl)e knowledge that our faults will not be spared and that pur actions are always bging scrutinised pught to be a national safeguard, and prevent the mass of the people being fipegiyed by unscrupulous wirepullers. If justice were done in regard to the people be

hind the scenes who got the Bank into such a humiliating condition, there would probably be an addition to the number of people who have special tasks allotted to them in the “ Government service.” The Bank of New Zealand is now fast pulling up lost ground, and so far as outsiders can judge, the management is conducted with great care and prudence. Every month increases the soundness of the Bank’s position, and there is not the slightest fear of a disaster the thought of which almost takes one’s breath away. The light which has been thrown upon the Bank's transactions wili only serve to bring the institution through the fire of purification, and while the present system of banking business is upheld, it is to the interest of every colonist that the Bank should continue on the wise path upon which it is now steadily progressing.