OUTLOOK FOR DOMINION

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXV, Issue 152, 14 June 1935, Page 5

OUTLOOK FOR DOMINION

Seen Through Banker’s Eyes LAND VALUES TOO HIGH (By Telegraph—Special to "Tribune.”) WELLINGTON, June 14. The financial and economic outlook for New Zealand as seen through the eyes of Mr William Watson, chairman of directors of the Bank of New Zealand, is shown in the following extract from his annual report to the proprietors of the bank submitted at the annual meeting to-day:— “As far as the Bank of New Zealand is concerned, I see no reason to anticipate any decline in its progress. Ordinary trade and the manufacturing industries have improved during the year, no doubt partly owing to more confidence as regards the exchange rate, and also to the favourable prices obtained for last season’s wool “The Public Accounts disclose that for the pa«t financial year the revenue amounted to £26,126,000 and the expenditure to £24,500,000, leaving a surplus of £1,626,000 principally due to profits on the sale o£ portion of the gold taken over from the banks and unusually high receipts from death duties. “Although the prices of our main products generally are at low levels, and our principal market is threatened with restriction as regards dairy produce and meat, it is better to be hopeful than pessimistic regarding the future and to strive for, and look forward to, better things. A visitor with experience of South America recently told u 8 that our land values were too high. He was only stating what a great many people in New Zealand believe to be the fact. Easy and plausible remedies are suggested to restore good times. Industry and thrift seem to have little place in some of these ideas which, were they put into operation, would make the position of the people very much worse. It is surely better to face our difficulties than look for easy and futile ways of avoiding them. “New Zealand is in many respects a very favoured country. It should be borne in mind that ups and downs are the common lot of a people, and that our present difficulties, unpleasant though they may be, are not beyond the power of men to overcome.”