THE BANK OF NEW ZEALAND.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 7569, 21 May 1886, Page 2

THE BANK OF NEW ZEALAND.

_ Auckland, April 28. The half-yearly meeting of the Bank of New Zealand shareholders was held to-day. A dividend of 15 per cent, was declared, and £30,000 carried forward.

The Chairman, in moving the adoption of the report and balance-sheet, said: Gentlemen, before moving the adoption of the report and balance-sheet which have just been read, you will no doubt expect me, as usual, to offer what comment is called for by the figures put before you. Fully recognising the abnormal condition of business in the colonies, owing to the continued and unexampled depression in the price of all our products in European markets, our policy has necessarily ■ been of a restrictive character. Under existing circumstances there is no room for speculative business, and as a rule he is doing the best who is doing the least. The general desire, therefore, among mercantile classes has been to confine transactions within the narrowest limits consistent with the efficient supply of the ordinary requirements of their customers, and in this policy the bank has lent its aid. Still, the general turnover has not been unsatisfactory, and, as the figures just read will have shown you, the average of profits for the last few years has been well maintained. We still look hopefully for the long-expected revival in business and a through recovery in the prices of colonial products, bucn a revival, we feel assured, cannot be much longer delayed; and though it may be taking too sanguine a view to expect a full return to the prices which, ruled some years since, the present anamolous condition of. markets—which leaves no profit for almost any produce—can hardly be permanent. Turning to the figures of the balance sheet, it will be see.v that on the debtor or liability side the only item which presents material alteration from previous statements is a slight decrease in deposits, which is more than accounted for in the operations of the Government account. On the other side, the cash equivalents included under the headings of coin and bullion," "money on short call" (xovernment securities," and " bills receivable and securities in-London" show some contraction, owing to the more active employment of the bank's resources and some reductions in the Orovernment balances. With these remarks, I" beg to move the adoption of the report and balance-sheet.

The motion was carried unanimously The following references were made at the Bank oi New Zealand meeting to Holt's defalcations by the chairman in moving the adoption of the report:—lt will no doubt be expected that some allusion should be made to our recent unfortunate experience in Sydney— an experience which came upon us as a great shock to the board, as I am sure it did to the general body of shareholders. I need hardly say that the sensational reports to which currency has been given in our public prints had but a slender foundation. We will make a loss, but the extent of it cannot be defined until the value of the defaulter's private estate is tested; but as far as can at present be judged, the extent of the loss cannot exceed £10,000 to £15,000, and may come to be much less. The bank in all its career has been singularly exempt from such cases, and it is much to be deplored that the first serious instance should have occurred in one of the most prominent and promising offices of the institution. As, however, his case is still sub judice,! refrain from more than these general comments on it.