I VALUE OF BANKS

Waikato Times, Volume 126, Issue 21057, 8 March 1940, Page 7

I VALUE OF BANKS

MINISTER’S TRIBUTE GREAT SERVICE RENDERED THE TAXATION ISSUE (By Telegraph.—Press Association) WELLINGTON, Thursday Irrespective of any views one might hold on Banking no one who had studied the history of the peoples of the British Commonwealth could fail to pay a magnificent tribute to the part played by its banking institutions, said the Minister of Finance, the Hon. W. Nash, speaking at the Union Bank Centennial ceremony today. If evidence were wanted of this, he continued, one had only to look at the United States and compare what happened there between 1929 and 1933 with the position in the British Commonwealth. At that time the whole of America, its commerce and business, was in a state of chaos from which British countries were relatively free. Question of Taxation The world was faced in 1933 with the greatest disaster in its history, but they in the British Commonwealth were not affected to a like extent. It was true British peoples experienced hardships and privations, but their banking institutions were firm and strong, and carried through the crisis. If he or those associated with him had criticised banks at any time, said the Minister, it was because they sometimes thought they made too much money. The bank claimed it did not make any, because of the taxation it had to pay and that there was nothing left, so far as its New Zealand business was concerned, with which to pay dividends. He did not know whether that was right or not, but any system of taxation that was unjust ought obviously to be altered. If things were unjust they could not last, and if there was an unjust system which took more from the bank than it made then it should be changed. Epoch-making Thought A tribute was due not only to the banks of the Dominion and the British Commonwealth, but also to the man who first thought out the idea of money and a banknote, Mr Nash said. There had been no more epoch-making thought than that which evolved the banking system. It had rendered magnificent service to the development of the Dominion. New Zealand was a most amazing little country from the productive point of view, and a tremendous lot of credit was due to the banking institutions for the part they had played in its development. Mr Nash congratulated the Union Bank on the work it had done in the past and hoped it would continue to render good service in the future.