THE STATE BANK.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIII, Issue 1444, 18 December 1919, Page 9

THE STATE BANK.

Dealing with his proposal for the establishment of a State Bank, Sir Joseph Ward declared in Auckland that the war had now made the institution imperatively necessary. It would be a fine thing for the country, if kept clear of political influence of every kind. Let the people all over New Zealand own the bank and let it have its roots deep planted in the soil of the country for the purpose of financially strengthening it in the years that were to come, and; keeping down the rate of interest for the people who required money. The position ‘'before the war was that both France and' Germany had State Banks, while England only bad the right of changing the charter of the Bank of England. The result was that at the beginning of the war France and Germany went on all right, but in England, which was financially the strongest of them all, in the early days it was impossible to cash a cheque. Alluding to the financial crisis which now faced Russia, Germany, Franco and Italy, Sir Joseph Ward asked his auditors to imagine what was going to take place in a few years when the Bolsheviks had come to the end of their tether and Germany and France wore back to normal. Was there any man who had studied the situation who did not believe that there was going to be a great financial strain? It was impossible to have a financial strain upon the whole Continent of Europe without its reflex being wafted across the ocean to the most distant part of the Empire. “It is our duty as men to look ahead, not on visionary grounds, and establish a financial institution which will put us in the position of being able to steady any financial crisis in this young country,” declared the speaker amid loud applause. The Commonwealth Bank, added Sir Joseph, was now putting about a million annually into the Treasury, and he wanted the profits of the Bank of New Zealand to go into the Treasury instead of into the pockets of private people, for the relief of the tax-payers. That was the “wild financial proposal” of the Liberal party.