The Oamaru Mail. WEDNESDAY, JULY 13, 1910.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 10505, 13 July 1910, Page 3

The Oamaru Mail. WEDNESDAY, JULY 13, 1910.

It is true that the saving of the Hank of New Zealand by the State was a great action. -AYo a)l remember how we felt on hearing of that splendid act of moral courage on the part of the Government, on that memorable night of 1894. At the first burst the country was unanimously favorable. Later _on some of the caustic spirits made objection and there was some amount of trouble in consequence. But time has proved the wisdom of the policy then adopted in the course of a single night by the Legislature. The credit and the guidance of the State have enabled the Bank to realise its doubtful assets comfortably, and to bring its business to a high' point of legitimate profit. The result has cost the State nothing and the responsibility of the people for the guaranteed capital so profitable to the Bank is now practically nonexistent, while the State's share in the concern is one of its best assets among a perfect galaxy of securities of the order of the gilt edge which is the saving distinction of the "entrance of the State into business under the leadership of the Liberal Party. Now it is argued by a number of public men and some writers that the State has justified bv this performance the growing demand —as they call it—for the establishment of a State Bank, and they call for the acquisition of the balance of the shares so as to complete the establishment of such an institution on the lines of their recommendation. But they mistake the position somewhat n their supporting arguments. Firstly, then, consider that the shareholders owe a debt of gratitude to the State to an extent that at least justifies consideration of the question of recognising the guaranteed capital as the capital of the State in the concern. Moreover, they urge that the shareholders have really little right to be considered seeing that when the State came to their help thev were ruined for all practical purposes. But the State did not help the Bank for the sake ot the shareholders. Neither did it do so for the purpose of making money for itself. The State saw perfectly clearly that if the Bank were allowed to sitiK the ruin occasioned by that disaster would be by no means confined to the thirty-five "thousand account holders. The State saw that the ruin would be far wider than even that brdad surface. It was to avoid a disaster of unparalleled magnitude involving every interest in the community that the salvation of the Bank was undertaken. This object has been achieved in the handsomest manner possible. The crisis passed off without any sort of disturbance of the general credit and without costing, as we have said above, a penny to the State, or involving it in any risk which has not by now passed completely away. The State is amply repaid by the result. Moreover, theState has a substantial equivalent. Therefore it is out of the question to talk of gratitude and debts from the Bank. It is proper that the shareholders should be considered. After all the property is theirs, and they have been through a bad time with it. The fact that they now enjoy profits does not alter the circumstance that they have their rights. If it be desirable to establish a State Bank—and that is a question which must be settled before anything is done —the field for the enternrise must in common justice be found outside the limits of the Bank of New Zealand. If those who are advocating the State Bank carry their principle through the Legislature they must be prepared for establishing their State Bank on the same lines on which the State Life, Fire and Accident Insurance Department were •started, seeking that is to say a clear field among all institutions and no favor.

The State Bank Agitation.

The news that the Bill for the repeal of the C.D. Act has passed its second reading through the Lower House is the best we have published for many days. This is especially the case as the second reading in the representative Chamber is the prelude to the passing of the measure through the Legislature, and the expulsion from the Statute Book of one of the worst, most unprincipled, and withal unnecessary Acts on the volume of our law. Therefore, nothing in his career has ever become Sir Joseph Ward better than the speech he made in moving this second reading. Ihe subject is not new. It has been referred to of late in both Houses of 1 arliament, and it is the centre of a long historv of experiment. Principle, the Act (which has been tried m many countries for the "regulation" of vice) never had a rag of. It obtained its place of honor among some enlightened nations for reasons of expediency pure and simple. In order that one section of the community might be vicious with impunity, another was to be so degraded as to lose ail its rights, moral, civil and constitutional. So

Reform Timely, Just and Needed.

engrained has this hideous selfishness become, that only the. other day a proposal was made in one of the. Chambers of Parliament to give to the Act the practical effect demanded by the friends of vice. This was really a plea for the rendering of vice more attractive. The answer preparing is 'the repeal of the Act in question. It is, therefore, unnecessary to dwell on the reasons why that course should bo followed. The universal consensus of opinion, the opinion of all the countries that.have tried this remedy, is that it is ineffectual. On this point both police experience and medical science are agreed. Into the details we need not enter. Enough that from the doctors of Paris, the home of this pernicious regulation, to the military authorities of British India, from Now York to London, the confession of the expert of the utter failure of regulation is complete as it is universal. Shorn thus of its only argument, deprived of its sole prop by the experience of the world, this abominable outrageous system is known to be unnecessary and can not therefore resist the indignation of the righteous. To make the world moral there is but one ride, after all: man must resort to self-control.