BANK RETURNS.

New Zealander, Volume XIX, Issue 1882, 30 May 1863, Page 9

BANK RETURNS.

The usual quarterly statement of tlxe assets and liabilities of the several Banks in this colony were published in the General Government Gazette yesterday. 'The returns now before us are those for the quarter ended March 31st; they show that the average of notes in circulation during the, period above mentioned amounted, m round numbers, to £G30,373. The liabilities for which were thus divided : Bank of New South Weles £220,125 Bank of New Zealand £220,252 Union Bank of Australia £lUVes2 In the twelve months since the 31st March, 18G2, it appears that the circulation of notes Las nearly been doubled. For the period ended at that date, for all the Banks, it was £330,G0d, and the shares wore Union Bank of Australia £150,301 Bank of New South Wales £IOB,OOO Bank of New Zealand £ 03,110 Thus it appears that in a year the circulation of the Bank of New South Wales liar been more than doubled ; that of the New Zealand Bank has been nearly quadrupled, whilst the Union has increased its issue of notes by £21,678 onlv. The average of coin and bullion held by the Banks was, in round numbers, one million fourteen thousand pounds.

Bank of Net v South Wales .£368,000 Union Bank i'f Australia £856,000 Bank of New 'Zealand £290,000 The Government deposits averaged .£222,737 : of these the Bank of New Zealand held .-£172,442, and the Union Bank .£48,259. “ Other deposits ” bearing interest were thus distributed : Union Bank of Australia £503,310 Bank of New Zealand £394,336 Bank of New South Wales £217,508 In the quarter ended 31st March, 1S(!2, these deposits amounted to £900,825. The increase in " twelve mouths has been £244,329. The amount of “notes and bills discounted” averaged £1,647,665. In the March quarter of 1862, the average was £992,830; the increase in a year has been £654,835. In the last quarter the amount of these securi- j tics held by the several Banks was as follow*: t Union Bank £622,599 Bank of New Zealand £589,114 Bank of New South Waics £435,952 It will be seen from these statements that the j business of banking in New Zealand grows with I great rapidity, and that the youngest of these i institutions, the New Zealand Bank, is steadily i rising- to the first place. The sudden development j of the business is due no doubt to the gold dis- | covery in the South, to the large increase of popuj lation which the gold fields attract, and to the I activity in trade, which the demands of the new 1 comers have developed, more or less extensively, in j every Province of the Colony, The prophet who, ! in the days of the first Now Zealand Banking | Company, twenty years since, would have ventured I to predict the coming, in his time, of such a ! change in the condition of this Colony as that of ; which the figures before us are evidence, would most certainly have received but little honor | amongst his friends and acquaintances, the oldest | inhabitants.