THE BANK OF NEW ZEALAND.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19198, 14 June 1924, Page 9

THE BANK OF NEW ZEALAND.

The shareholders in the Bank of New Zealand, not least important among them being the State itself, have every* reason to congratulate themselves upon the results of the past year’s operations, which are summarised in a message that is published elsewhere in this issue. Only once before has the bank been able to present a more favourable statement of accounts than is exhibited on the present occasion. In that “peak year,” which was three years ago, the bank not only had the advantage of the command of increased capital, but it was also singularly fortunate in the fact that, as was explained later, “a combination of unusual circumstances, principally m London” operated to swell its profits. The profits for the two succeeding years, though on nothing like the scale of those of 1920-21, reflected the increase in the earning power of the institution consequent upon the augmentation of its resources. The figures for the year that recently closed, however, overshadow them to a marked extent, a factor which contributed to this result necessarily being the fresh increase in the capital of ‘the bank. The following statement of not profits (after payment of interest on guaranteed stock) annually shown by the bank since the beginning of the present century instructively illustrates the measure of success by which its operations have been attended: * 19014 (average) _ _ £210,890 1905-8 (average) _ 300,016 1809-12 (average) _ 318,497 1913-16 (average) _ _ 349,077 1917-20 (average) _ _ 427,291 1921 ... _ _ _ _ 827,255 1922 ______ 682,043 1923 ______ 553,639 1924 _____ 735,831 The success of the Bank of New Zealand is not a matter in which only the ordinary shareholders have cause for gratification. The whole body of the people of the dominion are directly interested in the welfare of the institution. As units in the State, they are investors in the scrip of the bank and their investment is one that is of a remunerative character. And, if there is any virtue in the principle of State banking, they may reasonably ask themselves whether that principle is not sufficiently recognised in the arrangement that subsists between the Government and the Bank of New Zealand whereby the State is a co-partner with the ordinary shareholders and is represented in the management fiy a majority of the directors of an institution in which the trading public reposes its confidence.