The Temuka Leader. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 1885. THE BANK OF NEW ZEALAND.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1415, 7 November 1885, Page 2

The Temuka Leader. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 1885. THE BANK OF NEW ZEALAND.

j The recent annual meeting of the shareholders of the Bank of New Zealand betrayed a state of thiugs which | appears extremely anomalous. We have been accustomed to bear longwinded orations about want of money, etc., and to be told with all the wisdom in the world that money would get cheap when it got plentiful. It is well known to our readers that we have always dissented from this view. W<» have held that the cause of the high rate of interest was that the monetary institutions of the colony had entered into an alliance to keep up the rate of interest, and that unless something wbr done to break up this " trades union " the price of money would remain high. The last report of the meeting of the shareholders of the Bank of New Zealand proves incontestibly that we were right. After referring to the depression, the Hon. J. Williamson, Chairman of Directors, said : " The policy of the board is at present for the extension of our business in other Colonies rather than in New Zealand, which meantime does not off t so good a field for extension." Mr Murdoch, the General Manager, said : " It had been long apparent to the board that the large Bnd increasing resources and operations of the bank necessitated, in the bank's interest, a wider field than New Zealand offers, and, with this view in mind, many years ago they opened in Sydney. They afterwards opened in Newcastle, then in Melbourne, and more recently in Adelaide ; and looking at the large amount ol the assets of the bank—viz., L 14,800,000, —it was obvious it could not be fully employed in New Zealand, They had over 2-| millions sterling of the assets of the bank employed in Australia. In addition to this there was held in London and tL« Colony about four millions sterling not represented in coin." According to this the bank has more money than it knows what to do with, and we believe tvery one of the other banks is in the same position. And yet the price of money—the rate of interest—is as dear as ever. Does not this prove that the rate of interest will not be regulated by the laws of snpply and demand ? But the great point here is: We are screaming for want of money in this colony and our chief bank says it cannot find investment for its money. Those who spoke for it said as much as this : " New Zealand is played out ; we shall tern our attention to the other colonies," If those spokesmen had baen bonnet they would have said " We have squeezed the life-blood out of the colony ; it is now bled to the last drop ; we shall desert it, and seek a more prosperous field." Now, whose money is the bank trading on? It has only L 1,800,000 of its own money, yet it is trading on LI 4,800,000. J'hat means that it has LI 3,000)000 of the money of the people of this colony in hand : yet it tells us in plain language that this colony is not good enough for tbe employment of this money. We shall deal with this j

sul-j i:l in a future issue, mid in the meantime will content ourselves by saying that the utterances above quoted speak eloquently in favor of a National Dank.