A Banker's Review.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18413, 20 June 1925, Page 14

A Banker's Review.

The note of optimism which has usually been heard in the chairman's addresses at the half-yearly and annual meetings of the Bank of New Zealand during the past four years is not at all strongly marked in tho speech by Sir George Elliot at yesterday's meeting of the Bank. The Bank has had a wonderfully good year, which it could not have had if the country had not been active and prosperous, but largo profits have not lullod the Directors of tho Bank into carelessness concerning their duty of using their opportunities to give the public tho best advice they can. The chairman sees in the natural assets of the Dominion, and in the recovery it has made from its post-war troubles, good grounds for expecting a continuance of prosperity, but he sees also some disquieting tendencies. The first of these, which is also the subject of an emphatic warning by Mr William Watson, is less a tendency than the persistence of an established habit—the habit of .extravagance, leading to over-importation in certain directions. For the year ended March last the exports (543 millions sterling) exceeded the imports by 5 millions, but the surplus is not sufficient to pay the interest on foreign loans raised by the Government and local bodies. Sir George Elliot is afraid that counsels of economy will go unheeded, and his fear is probably well-grounded. As a rule nothing effectively teaches a nation the value of economy except a spell of adversity, and everyone must wish that tho country will learn the l«sson without the assistance of that hard school. The second tendency noted by the chairman is the tendency of many people to bclievo that it is a perfectly safe proceeding to establish pools to maintain high prices for our primary products in the British market. We all desire, of course, that these products shall fetch tho best prices current for goods of the quality supplied, and that wc shall not lose through faulty marketing, but people have been apt to forget that the British consumer must not be given any excuse for supposing that he is being exploited. At the present time New Zealand has a very good name in Br'.tain, and it would be the height of folly, dependent as we are upon tho British public for the disposal of the bulk of our exports, to do anything to imperil our advantages. Britain's goodwill is not less important to us in trade than Britain's strength and prosperity, as Sir George Elliot points out in that section of his address dealing with tariffs trade. There is ono piece of practical advice in his address which, although it is not new, ought to bo heeded and vigorously acted upon. The lifo of tho Dominion depends upon its agricultural and pastoral products, and of these butter is almost the most important. The dairying industry has not much to learn concerning the production of good butter, either in respect of methods or of cost. All that it needs, at this end, is the means of providing a greater volume for export, and this can be done with comparatively little extra cost by stocking the country with better milk-producing machines—by improving, that is to say, the quality of our dairy herds. It is held that there is no reason why the yield of butterfat per cow should not be increased to 250 pounds; and this would add 8 millions sterling to our exports. It is extraordinary that so large a benefit has not aroused more energy on the part of tho Government and of dairymen.