THE TRAIL OF MR. LANG

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 108, 9 May 1931, Page 13 (Supplement)

THE TRAIL OF MR. LANG

J As a natural consequence of the disastro us shocks inflicted recently by Air | Lang upon the stability of the financial | system in New »South Wales, a serious j “run” was started at the close of the week on the Wa\ing b Bank department oi the Commonwealth Bank. Of course, J the depositors who were anxious about safety of their money had no diffi- | culty in getting it out, but if this state 01. apprehension and anxiety is prolong<co 01 intcusilied, it will be necesary u> | retard the process of withdrawal. No ..bank ever keeps in its possession the whole of the money deposited with it, : roi the obvious reason that, if it did, it ;l would never be able to invest a surplus • . d:KI “In. dlvldend » -°r the shareholdI i crs. lhe facts of the situation have I been clearly explained by Sir Robert , . Gibson, who, ns Chairman of the Com- , monwealth Bank, has assured the gen- ■ oral public that, the Bank is perfectly sound and their money is absolutely , sele. lhe trouble has apparently becu caused by a number of nervous people. ( who, being seared by Mr Lang’s thread or repudiation and confiscation, removed their money from the state Savings I Bank to the Commonwealth Bank a few . days ago, and are now looking round for some safer place to put it in. Sir Kobert Gibson has told these people cmphatieally that they had better withdraw their funds, as the Bank does not want customers of this kind. Of course, it all the people who put money in any Imuk should ask for all their money at once, no bank would be safe f or ’ an . hour, the Commonwealth Bank will I certainly bo supported by the Federal Government to the best of its ability, and bir Robert Gibson has already an* uounced that the Bank will have at its disposal “any extension of the note issue deemed desirable in any emergI oncy. This statement does not indicate permanent inflation, but such a temporary enlargement of the note I issue as was permitted to the Bank of I England three times during the nineteenth century by the temporary “ aU sI pension of the Bank Charter Act.” As } a measure of alleviation and relief, it I was entirely suecessfu. at Home and 1.0 coubt it. would be equally efficacious in Australia. But if Mr Lang persists with hi s fantastic tricks in high finance I as, for example, the demand for cash giiaiantcos from the insurance companies there is no knowing where the ■ panic that he has started in Sydney may end.—Auckland .Star.