DOMINION FINANCE

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2685, 3 February 1916, Page 5

DOMINION FINANCE

POSITION EASY "WAR WILL NOT SERIOUSLY AFFECT US." Speaking last evening at tlhe annual meeting of the Equitable Building and Investment Company of Wellington, Ltd., Mr. Harold Beauchamp, chairman of directors, said:— "The bank returns for the quarter ended December 31, 1915, show that the Dominion is in a condition of great financial ease. Deposits, fixed and free, at that date, amounted to £29,154,000, as compared with £24,402,000 on December 31, 1914, whilst for the corresponding period advances and discounts fell from £24,932,000 to £24,042,000. In other words, the position of the public with their bankers has improved to the extent of £5,642,000.. This condition of affairs has 'been brought about by— "(1) The highly remunerative prices realised for all descriptions of our primary products. "(2) The persistent falling off in imports, and

"(3) Disinclination on the part of investors and others to commit themselves to long-dated advances pending .the result of the prosent war, in which our Empire has been involved for the past eighteen months. "As the result of this timidity or hesitation on the part of investors, money, despite its abundance, readily commands 5} to 6 per cent, for mortgage purposes, whilst shares, on the ■other hand, in first-class industrial and financial companies—which, are not reraided as a look-up of capital—can rarely be purchased at a rate to yield more than 4| to 5 per cent. Considering the slump that has taken place _ in the Values of seourities in other Darts of the British Empire—notably •Jreat Britain—holdtere of shares in rood joint stock oompanies in New Zealand have much cause for congratular tion. "If the war be brought to a succese'ul termination within a reasonable time, I think we, in this bighly-favoured Dominion, who look for our wealth to the products of the soil, will not be seriously affected (except by increased fiscal burdens) through, the gargantuan liabilities assumed by the Empire as a whole in the prosecution of the war." ,