The Otago Daily Times. SATURDAY, JUNE 21, 1924. THE BANK OF NEW ZEALAND.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19204, 21 June 1924, Page 8

The Otago Daily Times. SATURDAY, JUNE 21, 1924. THE BANK OF NEW ZEALAND.

In the absence abroad of the chairman of directors of the Bank of New Zealand, the annual meeting yesterday was presided over, for the first time since the reconstruction of the institution, by a director who holds his seat on the Board as a representative of the ordinary shareholders, —by Mr William Watson who possesses, we think, the distinction of being, in point of years of service, the oldest member of the board. Mr Watson’s speech in moving the adoption of the annual report covered a wide field and, in view of the favourable character of that report, was generally couched in terms of satisfaction with the position and the prospects of the Dominion. It is true that Mr Watson invited the inference, if indeed he did not expressly state, that the profits of the year, amounting to £735,831, represented only an ordinary return on the funds of which the bank had command. It is true also that the profits were swelled by two fortunate circumstances, —the first, the realisation of a surplus of £148,112 through the substitution of one set of securities for another; the second, the reclamation of a sum of £184,465 which had been set aside as a provision against possible loss on N doubtful advances but had been found to be not required for this purpose. But Mr Watson did not seek to disguise the fact that the bank, while returning a satisfactory dividend to both classes of shareholders, is building up internal reserves that Will prove a source of great strength to it if, in the future, New Zealand should be confronted with a period of severe adversity such as, indeed, must always be counted among the possibilities in & country that relies on overseas markets for the disposal of its principal products.

Mr Watson entered into a somewhat technical argument, which we have not thought necessary to reproduce in our report of his speech, cn >the subject of currency and exchange, the general tenor of it being to show that traders in New Zealand are much more favourably situated than the producers and merchants in Australia are; and this led him on to a criticism of the system of a State Note Issue which exists in Australia. On the subject of the moratorium on mortgages, which is a subject of more direct interest in New Zealand, Mr Watson expressed a view that is substantially the same as has been offered by us, namely, that an extension of the moratorium would simply mean a postponement of the evil day for the mortgagors who have neglected or have been unable, during the ten years of the' protection they have enjoyed, to make arrangements for the fulfilment of their engagements. There may, he suggests, be a. few cases which merit such consideration as would be exhibited in, as . the Prime Minister proposes, a reference to the Supreme Court with a view to the adoption of an equitable accommodation between the parties. In the majority of the cases, however, where the causes of failure are “purchasing land at inflated prices, acquiring more land than the purchasers’ capital warranted, and incompetent farming ” it is, Mr Watson holds, not in the interests of the country that the moratorium should not now be lifted. The matter is one which concerns the North Island to a much larger extent than it does the South Island. Indeed, the acting-chairman of the Perpetual Trustees, Estate, and Agency Company, expressing the opinions of his fellow-directors -and himself at the annual meeting of the company yesterday, felt justified in saying that if the moratorium should be removed in December next no very great inconvenience will be caused in the southern portion of the dominion.