NEW YORK CRISIS

Wairarapa Daily Times, 20 January 1932, Page 5

NEW YORK CRISIS

CITY EMBARRASSED. BANKS OBDURATE. NEW YORK, Monday. Despite desperate struggles during the past few days by the Board of Estimate to find a way out of New York’s financial distress, it is now feared that an unavoidable crisis lias been reached and default upon notes totalling £ll,700,000 is feared to-morrow. In addition to these notes, which are simply those considered most immediately pressing, the city is considerably worried about ability to continue its daily running expenses.

Aside from salaries, the examination of the “City Record,” New York’s official organ of civic affairs, disclosed that the city had paid no bills since January 1. Salaries have been paid to date, but have taken every available dollar.

A lengthy conference was held by the Mayor, City Comptroller, and other officials at the home of President Mitchell, of the National City Bank, but was apparently without result, for the bankers appear unwilling to advance funds to enable the city to meet its obligations, despite large retrenchments already made or promised. These are still regarded as insufficient. One prominent banker stated: “We are' not particularly impressed by the fact that the Board of Estimate has placed approximately £24,000,000 in projects 4 on the shelf.’ Many of those projects, as a matter of fact, have been on the shelf for many years, and were likely to have stayed there whether the city had money or not.” Among the day’s outstanding bankruptcies were those of the Hudson River Navigation Corporation and the Spreckles Sugar Company. . Banks, closed included the First National and the Commercial of Champaign, Illinois, with combined total deposits of £l,300,000, and the First National of Durham, Carolina, with deposits on record on Saturday of £700,000. The directors of the latter bank asserted that the closure was due to withdrawals since October 1 of £BOO,OOO of deposits.