HANDICAPPING THE BANKS

Manawatu Standard, Volume L, Issue 141, 14 May 1930, Page 6

HANDICAPPING THE BANKS

The necessity for such drastic control of the Commonwealth banking system is far from obvious. Mr Scullin and his colleagues appear to have had their eyes on America, although they have gone a very different way to work, in formulating their proposals. The more important of the banks of the United States are what are called national banks, and they are required, at starting, to invest at least a third of their capital in paid-up Government bonds, which pay them an interest of 4 per cent., more or less. They then obtain from the Government bureau, established for the purpose, 90 per cent, of paper money, the notes thus used by them being secured at Washington by the deposit of their United States bonds. The customers’ deposits are protected by. a compulsory cash reserve for each national bank of 25 per cent, of the amount of its deposits in the larger cities, and of 15 per cent, in the.smaller cities. In addition to these national banks there are State and private banks, the latter being apparently conducted on such loose principles that, within the last four years, seventy banks in the United States were ruined through embezzlement, robbery or other criminal acts. Mr Scullin’s proposals go much further than the demands of the United States Government upon its banks, as the Commonwealth Government has not only taken possession of the gold and bullion held by the banks, but, by also proposing to take over 1(J per cent, of the moneys they have at call, and 0 per cent, of the deposits on which they pay interest, it restricts the credit facilities available for their customers other than on the Australian notes they have, perforce, to purchase from the Government. The question of control is all important. The Government proposes that the bank should be controlled by three of its own nominees together with a Treasury official and representatives of banking and commerce, and the manufacturing and primary industries, also labour. Apart from the Treasury official tiie Labour Government would thus have the appointment of four representatives, if indeed it did not retain the right of appointing all the members of the Board of Management. But the bank is not to be a trading bank, nor is it to accept deposits from the public. Its one object is to hold and control the millions of safety reserves it is to take over from the banks. No Government liable to pressure of the character of that brought to bear upon democratic governments to-day should be entrusted with the powers the Australian Labour Government would hold if this Bill goes through, for there is a very obvious danger that the liquid assets of which it would become possessed would in time be dissipated, at least in part, to meet the exigencies of public expenditure. It would also be within the power of the Government to revise and amend the bank s constitution.

The inadequacy of the present capitation grant was blamed at the Educational Institute conference at Wellington yesterday for the un hygienic conditions of school buildings. At yesterday’s meeting of the Manawatu County Council a letter of appreciation of the council’s efforts towards the consummation of its highways work was received from the Foxton Chamber of Commerce. A message published in the Auckland Sun yesterday ( and accredited to the Press Association, states, inter alia: — “A meeting last evening of the New Zealand Golf Council decided to award the New Zealand golf championships this year to Titirangi. Two courses were applying for the meeting, Titirangi and Palmerston. North.” Dr. E. P. Ellison (Director of Maori Hvgiene) conferred with the social welfare committee of the Palmerston North Hospital Board yesterday afternoon and approached the members concerning a subsidy towards the cost of Nurse Werata’s car at Otaki. He expressed pleasure at the work being done by the board for the Maoris in its district. During April the chief items of traffic on the Manawatu County Council’s tramway were as follow: Grain, 18 tons; minerals and manure, 352 J tons; general merchandise, 34i tons; cheese, 199 crates; eggs, 69 crates; cream, 44 cans; sheep, 60 trucks; pigs, 4 trucks; metal, 172 trucks; timber, 8111 sup. ft.; posts, 4 trucks; flax fibre, 20i tons. The accounts showed a credit balance of £42 6s 6d. To be hemmed in for hours on a jutting area of a hillside barely extensive enough to accommodate them, a precipice on one side and an enraged Jersey bull on the other, was the experience of a well-known Christchurch solicitor and his wife, Mr and Mrs A. J. Malley, and two friends, Mr and Mrs W. Jones, on Sunday afternoon. They escaped only after Mr Malley had crawled down the cliff and secured help. The candidness, as well as the fairness, of a Christchurch barber, took a customer by surprise the other day when the price of a haircut was being tendered. The customer, on receiving his change, remarked that he had only been charged sixpence and inquired if that was the regular amount. ‘‘That’s enough for you,” was the reply, “because you’re nearly bald!” Others, who do not obejct to candour, says a Christchurch newspaper, may be inclined to seek out this particular hairdresser.

A brief but candid report concerning his impressions of the recent conference held in Christchurch to consider the question of the deer menace was given by Mr G. Simpson, junr., at a meeting of the Otago Institute. Mr Simpson said that it was not a deer conference at all, but a political affair, the object of which was to whitewash the Forestry Department. The delegates were simply asked to give the Minister of Internal Affairs some information as to the best way to destroy a number of deer, and that was the end of it. Information as to how he had taken steps to remedy the evil of overcrowded classes was given by the Minister of Education, Hon. H. Atmore, in an address to the Educational Institute Conference at Wellington yesterday. The Minister said that the position was now very much improved. When the matter of large classes was brought before him he had taken steps immediately to remedy the position and had himself reduced the size of classes after visiting some schools. He realised that if education was just mass education it was not true education. “There’s no telling what dangers a motorist may meet on the roads nowadays, remarks the Hastings Tribune. Last week a car was well on to the Waitangi bridge before .a truck came on to it at the other end. The motorist, relying on the rule which gave him the right-of-way, continued on, and had the shock of liis life when the driver of the truck did the same. On the truck were two wildly gesticulating Chinese yelling; “Me no cau stopl Me no can stop!” Then came the impact, a broken front buffer and minor other damage, which will probably cost the Orientals a £lO note. Mr C. E. Taylor, one of the principals of Messrs Taylor and Pointon, had a narrow escape from serious injury the other day. He was engaged on "the new Regent Theatre when he was hit on the side of the head by the hammer of a rivet-gun. Six stitches were inserted in the wound. Yesterday afternoon Mr T. Venn, a w'orkman employed on the front of the building, was hit on the head by a piece of falling timber and was compelled to have three stitches inserted in the wound which followed. He was able to resume work shortly afterwards. Apart from these incidents, there has been a noticeable absence of accidents in this large undertaking.

The Catholic Church in New Zealand has now reached a stage in its development when it is not necessary to bring out clergy from older countries where the Church is well established (says an Auckland paper). The Rev. Dr. Buxton, .administrator of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, stated in a sermon on Sunday that Archbishop Redwood had recently informed him that he believed all future requirements would be supplied by New Zea-land-born priests. At the present time there are over 70 students training for the priesthood .at Holy Cross College, Mosgiel, and there are other students preparing for ordination at the Marist Fathers’ seminary at Greenmeadows, Hawke’s Bay. Byrd’s flight over the south pole—a pending assault upon the summits of the Himalayas—do these cross the last frontiers of exploration? Hardly, says the Monitor if estimates of Dr. Alexander Hamilton Rice, South American explorer, be credited. He computes that only two-sevenths of the world is properly mapped. Even the recent conquests in the Antarctic have left a vast part of the bottom of the world untouched. In the far north and the sub-Arctic from Labrador to northern Siberia and from the Greenland ice-cap to the Fraser River, there are great spaces that are white on the maps as well as on the ground. In Latin America, from the mysterious Mayan cities of Yucatan to impenetrated regions of the Argentine there is work for the explorer. The very tools that have reduced the field of exploration on the surface of the earth have extended it in two other dimensions. Mysteries beneath the level of the sea and in the upper air are just beginning to draw the serious investigator. And even on ground where the first explorer's shadow has fallen, there is much to be done —jobs for the explorer which are rich in promise of mysteries to be solved. Merchants and storekeepers favour No Rubbing Laundry Help, because it’s a New Zealand industry. Housewives favour it because it has abolished “washboard slavery.” Large packets Is each. All stores. — Advt. Collinson and Son’s have been favoured with a huge shipment of tea time toasters. Those are suitable for gas stoves, electric stoves, or coal ranges. We maintain that this toaster is equal, if not better than, any other toaster on the market. Price 6d each 1 Buy early I—Advt.

Two cars skidded and overturned, and one of them toppled over a precipitous bank flanking the river in the steep grade of Tongahoe Hill ne Hawera yesterday afternoon. JNone of the occupants was seriously injured. At yesterday’s meeting of the Mami" watu Drainage Board it was state that the board had plenty of work to offer to outside labour if onlv the right type could be procured. the trouble,” stated a member, w that these men don’t want work. They will not leave the town.” Approval of the proposals of the sub-committee which drew up a tentative scheme for the suggested farm competition in the Manawatu vas voiced at the monthly meeting of the Palmerston North Chamber of Commerce, yesterday, when an outline o the programme was received. Two spikes driven in between the joints of rails were found by gangers on the railway line between Mama station and the bridge over the IMta* nini stream south of Manurewa (lo miles from Auckland) on Monday. The spikes, which were about five inches long, and were of the type used for fasteniing rails to sleepers, _ were lying flat between the rails. When they were found they were both on one side of the line, being the length ot ono rail apart. The magnitude of his task, and that of the committee in investigations throughout the country, was explAincd by the Minister of Education, Hon. H. Atmore, at the Teachers’ Institute conference at Wellington, yesterday, in reply to criticisms against him for delay in the matter of re-organising the education system. He said that he could give away no confidences until the report was presented to Parliament, but lie.discoursed on certain points considered by the committee. “Greater prevalence of diabetes, with a corresponding increase in the death rate for'this disease, appears to be the price paid for any .advance in the standards of living of the people,” states the Abstract of Statistics. “As the country emerged from the pioneering years to the level of modern civilisation, so has the death rate from diabetes continued to advance, >n spite of the proven success of certain palliatives. The number of deaths from diabetes in 1929 was 201, this being a record for the Dominion, although the death rate of 1.43 has been exceeded on two occasions in 1918 and 1919.”