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Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 628, 17 February 1879, Page 2

Referring to the failure of the Bank of Glasgow and other Home Banks, we notice that articles have been written iv the Otago and other Southern journals which have commented with great severity on the loose system which must have beeli allowed to prevail m conducting Bank operations. The system which could permit such gigantic wrong-doing must have m it something radically unsound. The unlimited credit and crossdrawing, which ihe examination of some of the bankrupts disclosed, is not the work of the City of Glasgow Bank alone ; it is the characteristic and the growth of the age. It is only to be hoped that the searching investigations, and the fearful disclosures now made, will lead to a sounder system — to a system of a check and counter-check, and to the adoption of stringent rules as to the extent of banking credit to be allowed to individuals or closely-allied firms. Says the Otago Daily Times, referring to the subject :— " We believe it would be well if inspectors could be appointed under a Board of Trade with power to make periodical and searching investigations of the securities of every jointstock bank. Mines and factories are inspected and machinery is held under restriction, and it seems that a bank explosion may create more universal ruin and confusion than an explosion m a mine, and hurl thousands to a life of starvation or a lingering death. The manufacture of credit, and the delicate workings of a great financial machine, may need as much superintendence as those machines which seem more directly to affect life and limb."