The Evening Star SATURDAY, JUNE 9, 1934. HALF A CENTURY.

Evening Star, Issue 21742, 9 June 1934, Page 14

The Evening Star SATURDAY, JUNE 9, 1934. HALF A CENTURY.

Yesterday was a , jubilee occasion for the Perpetual Trustees, Estate, and Agency Company, and at the fiftieth annual meeting some interesting memories were recalled by more than one speaker. Tho present chairman joined the board of directors thirty-five years ago, which happens also to bo the total length of sendee of the present genera] manager. His predecessors in that position were at the helm respectively for twenty-two years and fifteen years, so that during its half-century of existence the company has had but three general managers. All of them hare had the benefit of boards comprising men whoso names have been or are closely identified with the business life of Dunedin. “ Men of energy and scrupulous endeavour, combined with good judgment and high principles,” was the tribute paid them from the chair yesterday. A perusal of their names sufficiently explains the sound traditions which presumably constitute a guide to the policy followed during what the directorate admits to be a period of constant change in business conditions. As one director stated, “ many things that we regard as axioms in finance, currency, and international monetary relations are being challenged, and where we are going is by no means clear at the present time.” One most outstanding example of the truth of this is the, stand Britain has taken with the United States over the war debts question and the approval with which business men of the most conservative habit have greeted this latter-day declaration of independence., In consequence of changing conditions some financial institutions have disappeared, but this has not deterred others from adventuring in the same field. The excessive death rate among companies and the high infant mortality rate among them, alluded to by one speaker, seem to emphasise the element of permanence which is, or should be, inherent in concerns which, beginning in a modest way, have grown normally with the growth of the community which they serve. Lack of this was probably a heavily contributing factor to the holocaust of financial institutions recently in America, though the convulsion there was severe enough to test to the uttermost the stability of even the best founded and conducted among them. Caution and' sobriety during an era of rising prices, stimulating the development of boom conditions, and the maintenance of courage and a level head—the avoidance of panic—when the inevitable reaction sets in are qualities in which financial institutions in Dunedin have shown themselves not to he lacking. . The assistance of legislation designed to minimise hardship was acknowledged yesterday, the admission being made that the trend of the alterations is to bring the law more into conformity-with modern business conditions. There seems also to be a conviction that this process may be expected for some time to come. Business men appear to accept .-the Ministerial notice to the effect that Governments will have to come frequently to their Parliaments in the months and years immediately ahead for sanction for wide and sweeping changes in the economic structure. Yesterday’s proceedings were singularly free from criticism of the country’s Administration oh the ground of interference with business matters, excessive taxation, etc. This latter may have been tacitly implied in the directors’ decision in the matter of allocation of profits to vote a special sum to augment the staff benefit fund rather than add to the company's reserves. As the general manager pointed out, during the last four years opportunities for individual saving have been minimised by the assiduity of the tax collector.,