The Reserve Bank

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXV, Issue 154, 15 June 1935, Page 6

The Reserve Bank

(To the Editor). Sir,—The chief executive officer has very clearly demonstrated the difference between a general manager and a governor. Shareholders and, of course, incidentally, the general public have been told, as were little boys in my young days, that they may be seen but not heard. We are to be content with the brief and lofty statement that the bank is good for us. It certainly seems to be pretty good for shareholders, as according to uiy reading of the first annual report, a full year’s dividend is paid though operations have only covered eight months. The governor mentioned, in an incidental may nor, that the British Government hiZl had its short term credit requirements met for as low a rate as 3/10 per centum per annum. I wonder if the price that our Reserve Bank charged the New Zealand taxpayer came as “low” as twenty times that figure.

One certainty stands out of the speaking silence surrounding our bank’s operations, and that is that productive industry in New Zealand has been called upon to meet ‘ ‘ the inevitable initial but non-recurring expenses ’ ’ to pay the by no means niggardly salaries and honoraria of the staff, to pay 5 per cent, upon the invested capital of shareholders, and £4OOO for the consolidated fund.—-Yours, etc., ARCH. LOWE. June 14, 1935.