MORE BANKS.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 508, 15 May 1909, Page 13

MORE BANKS.

"... i' Mining, . ■ v? ir '7r CouU , t'hero bo anything more pitiable than tho -Premier's. referonco :to-. tho 'financial, situationP-; ..Eerfognising .that h" . . would ;b0 expected to; say something, his In.veroargill utterances; reyeal a depth of intel-' .; lectual poverty, or a determination to insult . cur intelligence, _ or a belief that wc do not - on'r.tfeniier.in',-#. " "'"st unfavourable light.' Will you. 1 allow mo, as a 'mere farmer, to 'placo before your 1 readers .a few ■well-known facts which only become signincant .'when'grouped? ' Our banks are practically tho only channel thfough • which money ,can flow, public or . private. Our. banks -prevent us from send* ' • Sto,pay;for our imports and tn(v interest-oh our public , and private; debt, : as'-they "prevent ub from receiving casks of gold for our exports. Our exports pay , -the .bills,; and jho. banks, practically, do the bookkeeping. For several fat y Cur6 peop]a had been stacking up monev and shovelling . it into the banks. The. banks wore at their ..wits end« to know what to do with it, and finally tbey went out into tho upon market and competed- for freehold security, offering more overdrafts instead of tho ordinary mor£ I" this quest thev .were very successful. I good deal of bona fido mortgage B«<aj faiW- to find investment and left.

New Zealand. A good doal more did not arrive hero at all. - Suddenly our exports dropped four or five millions all at once. (,1 have no exact figures, but the main fact suffices). • Our imports and interest did not drop, and had to bo paid for. The banks had to call in thoir money, and thoy had already starved' out the money ■•' that should 1 have taken its place. ' 1 In "the meantime orders for imports had gone forward on tho same scale as 'previously, and .' once these ' facts aro grouped the position and its cause must surely be apparent to the most ordinary capacity. In place of the glib and genial generalities of tho Premier/there was a'great opening for a man with a stout heart and sense-of duty to toll the people soirij homo truths. If wo cannot 'increase tho value of our' exports at least wo can decrease tho cost of bur imports; If tho Premier would illustrate the position:by citing the case of any ordinary •man with £800 a yoar instead'of'a country spending eight millions,- he-would be laughed to scorn for suggesting that such a man was doing anything heroic in saving £25 a year. I;nave outlined the specific cause of pre-sent-pressure. But in a-general sense wo have been inviting capital to leaye our shores for twenty years. "Lot f them take their yellow, counters.. They cannot take.our fair and; beauteous country, rior our fertile lands. We still have left ' the; bone -, and sinew. of our'.manhood, aye, sir, the, beauty and 'do'-' votion of our womanhood." ' Such ineffable nonsense as this .has .been rapturously applauded . from every, platform in the country. Capital has been.helu up to derision, hatred, and contempt, and the failures of the community have been: chosen to manage its affairs. Foreign capital has been kept away. Lot ■ the Premier explain tho difference in the . price of 'money' here and lin Australia, arid why money , that is so plentiful there will not .come hero at all .at any price. Meanwhile, local'capital has its . tongue, !, in its cheek. Wo have curtailed .the supply of outside. money," but the law of demand and supply has not been repealed,despite .Liberal boasting/ Six per, 1 cent, for five'years can be had anywhere. Four farms jhere of 100 acres each bought at £10 to £12-per acre can. now be bad for £8 10s., bccause-the buyers;, cannot! ;m'eet;.their mortgages. No, Liberalism has' not • harmed -local! money, but only, the; men. who want to borrow it. .Men with money have always opposed the Government.- They ought to subsidise it. Perhaps that is why the -~two wealthiest men .in . this island'have, been so pronounced in their adherence to the Liberal cause. '; ' Mr. Beauchamp. was quite right in saying that lending- on mortgago was no part of a banking business. If they, had kept out of such business in. the. past, or what', amounts' to-the same , thing, money would not be as scarce as.it is:to-day, though, scarcer than-it was two. years ago. But when Sir Joseph Ward- wants othor banking- companies" to "start one'is tempted to inquire why there are no more to-day. What killed ,the Colonial Bank, for instance?—l am, eti.', FAB.MER. May 12.