ASSETS REALISATION BOARD.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1653, 4 November 1903, Page 28

ASSETS REALISATION BOARD.

In the House of Representatives last Thursday, Mr Herries made an attack on the Assets Realisation Board. He pointed out that in the seven years the Board had been in existence they had realised ,£963,000 for sale of properties. He wanted to know what they had done with the money. True, they had paid off .£6lO 000 worth of debentures, but in the seven years they had got £501,000 from the bank, so that practically the hank was paying off its own debentures. No doubt tliev did not get the whole of the £963,000 in cash, but even if tney only got the half of it, he wanted to know what they did with the money r ]’hov paid £76,000 a year in interest, but the balance must have gone in expenses. Mr Herries maintained that bj holding on to their properties the Board had got better prices, but the expenses bod been piling up, and be believed equalled, and perhaps exceed ed, the increased prices realised by holding on. Mr H®l- - held that the Assets Realisation Board should be abolished, and the management of the properties handed back to the bank, and he indicated that he would make a strong effort for V* 16 abolition of the Board when the Banking Bill is being considered. Mr VV. Fraser, who is a member of the Assets Board, defended the Board, and held that their business tv as not to plG&so the public, but to get the best possible prices in the interests of the shareholders of the bank, and that had been done. As to the £50,061) received annually from the bank, Mr Fraser held that Mr Herries* statements were unfair. When the properties were handed over to the Board they were overvalued from £700,000 to .£900,000, yet thewßoard had 1 to payinterest on that over-valuation, and as an acknowledgment of the over-valua-tion. it was agreed that the bank pay t!.« Board £50,000 annually. Thus the £50,000 was fairly and equitably part of the Board’s income. The Premier said if the Board had realised in the wayland agents and syndicates wanted tney would have been a quarter of a million more to the bad than they were now. The stations had been well managed by the Board, whilst under the bank the. management was scandalous, and it was no wonder the bank had to close its doors, seeing the losg it was making oil these stations. Since then the management had‘been superior in every way.