BANK AT BLUFF

Southland Times, Issue 21273, 19 December 1930, Page 6

BANK AT BLUFF

THREATENED CLOSURE. MEETING OF PROTEST. A large and representative meeting of Bluff business people and bank clients was held in the Bluff Council Chambers last evening to discuss the threatened closing of the local branch of the Bank of New Zealand. His Worship the Mayor (Dr. Torrance) presided, and after a lengthy discussion the meeting was of the emphatic opinion that in the event of the local branch being turned into an agencj', fully 75 per cent, of the local depositors would take their bank business elsewhere. Officers of the Bank of New Zealand were present and explained the bank’s attitude.

Various speakers expressed resentment at the proposed action, and in view of the efforts of the Southland League and the Invercargill Chamber of Commerce to keep the port to the fore as the gateway into Southland, it was considered that the bank was not giving these bodies the support they deserved. \ The following resolution, copies of which are to be forwarded to the bank directorate and the Hon. P. A. de la Perrelle, member for Awarua, was . unanimously carried: “That this meeting of clients of the Bank of New Zealand, Bluff, lodges an emphatic protest against the proposed action of the Bank of New Zealand to close the Bluff branch and to reopen same as an agency. We feel that the action of the- bank Is one that will have a very retarding and injurious effect, on the business of Bluff and is a very retrograde step so far as Bluff is concerned. Bluff as a terminal port of the South bland is entitled to a full banking service and an agency would not meet the requirements of the public, and the business community. If the directorate does not feel disposed to meet the wishes of Bluff clients, other arrangements for . a banking service will be considered.”