FARMERS’ FINANCE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16706, 25 July 1928, Page 8

FARMERS’ FINANCE

CONFERENCE DISCUSSION THE BANKS CRITICISED (For Press Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. The Farmers’ (Tnion Conference missed remits urging tho .Government to give lull oll'oo.t to the report of the Rural Credits Commission that, the Legislature should consider measures to direct the flow of capital from city investments to the farming industry, and that the conference supports free trade with Great Britain. The conference criticised hank conditions in New Zealand, and various speakers alleged that when the farmers were in the depths of a slump the banks were paying larger dividends than ever, that the talk of an agricultural bank had probably more to do with the reduction of interest, than anything else, and that the banks had been charging 7 per cent, when there was no excuse for doing so. Finally, the following motion was carried: “That under present conditions the profits derived by the Rank of New Zealand from its business in recent years are out of all proportion to the conditions of the primary producers of the country. • The matter requires investigation during the session, and such investigation should aim at a comparative statement of the returns from banking and farming operations. Furthermore it is the imperative duty of the Government to exercise a.watchful and rigid supervision over the operations of the Bank of New Zealand by intervening when they unduly oppress the primary producer.” A remit urging the formation of agricultural banks also was carried.