fjtowttg f[»g ptevali PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING GIBBORNE, SATURDAY, JUNE 20, 1896,

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7661, 20 June 1896, Page 2

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING GISBORNE, SATURDAY, JUNE 20, 1896,

There con be no good purpose served by the proposed Parliamentary Committee to enquire into the banking legislation. Such Committee would only go to work on party lines, and Mr Seddon has taken care to have a great preponderance of voting power ou hi 9 side, as will be seen when it is stated that the names proposed are the Premie^ Hon. J. McKenzie, Hon. Capt. Russell, and Messrs Pinkerton, Buchanan, Millar, Graham and Lang. Mr Keddon's motion provides that the Committee shall enquire into matters both prior and subsequent to the Banking legislation of 1894 and 1895, with special reference to all the circumstances leading up to that legislation, the fullness and accuracy of the information then discloaed by the directors aud officers of those institutions, and the capacity and fitness of those directors and officers ; and into all such other matters as the Committee deem necessary or expedient. The report is to be presented within twenty-one days. It is too much to expect such a Committee within such a limit of time to enquire into and ascertain the causes that led to the commitment of the colony to a liability of five and a quarter of millions to cave a tottering bank and enable it to take in another institution, which was in an equally shaky etate owing to the heavy load of debt in the name of the Colonial Treasurer which it had to carry. When the amalgamation proposals were submitted, the House was assured by the Government that it was necessary that the Colonial Bank business should be acquired to "strengthen" the Bank of New Zealand, and the colony was thereupon induced to pay £76,000 for the good-will of that institution. How can a Committee with an overwhelming majorily of Miuisterialists be expected to give a fair criticism of the Government's action in that matter. The effect of the Committee's deliberations is more likely to tend towards concealment than exposure, and a full and fair investigation of the whole of the bunking business will only be obtained by an independent tribunal entirely free from Parliament and party politics. If the Premier was anxious for a true enquiry he would move to set up a P«oyal Commission, composed, say, of a Supreme Court Judge, and other members who would command the respect and confidence of everybody.