INVESTMENT TRUST

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22099, 1 November 1933, Page 5

INVESTMENT TRUST

" % to IHK EDITOR Sib, —There have appeared in many papers during the last two years advertisements setting forth in a very roseate manner the attractions and inducements which certain investment trust companies hold out to the investing public. These companies profess to be operating upon the lines followed by the most conservative English and Scottish trust companies, but one is led to believe that such is not the cffse. The English and Scottish investment trust companies are probably the most powerful institutions of their ' kind in the world and are, from the investors’ point of view, practically, infallible! Their stocks are quoted on the London Stock Exchange at, in nearly every case, a very substantial premium. But what do we find here? The Stock 1 Exchanges do not list the stocks of these concerns, and the holders are handicapped with regard to the disposal of them through,the ordinary channels for the sale of -investments. Whilst there is no doubt whatever that an investment trust of the right type is probably one of New Zealand’s greatest present-day necessities, any company of the kind must be formed to carry out its obligations along the lines operated upon by the English and Scottish companies and to work in conjunction with the Stock Exchange. Such a trust company, with a good, strong directorate, would soon find itself a financial bulwark in the community, and would certainly be the means of saving for investors, and the smaller investors in particular, thousands of pounds which at the present time find their way into speculative ventures. The people of this country are getting sick of putting money into concerns that have little or no chance of success, and it has often been a matter of. wonder to me that a number of our leading business' men have not shown enough initiative to get together and form a really attractive type of investment trust company similar' to the companies in the Old Country. Should such a company be formed it would, without doubt, be a great safeguard against the speculative element and prove to be an unqualified success.—l am, etc., Dividend.