A Gloomy Picture

Feilding Star, Volume VII, Issue 138, 1 May 1886, Page 3

A Gloomy Picture

The following letter appears in the Ifew Zealand Watchman:— 'Sir,— In your issue of the 29th March, < Enquirer 1 asks has the Bank of New Zealand gold for the notes it has in circulation, and in answer you state it would be unfair to single out any one Bank. la this I agree with you. But,, sir, under the present depression to what extent are the depositors protected? Are any of the Banks subject to?€kfv*rnment audit, that their real pontion c*uld be shown to the public. It is a tact that cannot be denied that one of the Banks transacting business in New Zealand fur many years has been speculating in hud, cattle, sheep, 6c. I have been in the colony for upwards of 30 years, and know a great part of the country, and I can assert that in every district where you may travel you will see what have once been happy homesteads with the buildings gone to ruin, the paddocks growing nothing but weeds, the fences gone to decay. When you make enquiry who might be the owner, the answer is, "the Bank." In some districts I know for a positive fact where such farms have been lying waste in the centre of a settled district for ten years, not bringing in one fraction for the good* of the district. Such farms are valued by the Bank at £14 per acre, while if they were offered for positive solo, they would not bring more than £4 per acre. It' the Banks' valuation on their properties are made out above the market value, are they sound agents? or rather, if the Banks depend on these ]«j|ifrat their own own valuation to the public credit, the simple ques'jJßlplfi is the security good ? Sir, for ~~s?lßiWtime properties will continue to iaJs"lato the banks' hands, *for the reason that the banks have advanced more on them than they will bring in the open markets. Land valued two years ago at £100, to-day is only worth £35 ; sheep valued at 9s are only worth 4s. Any bank dealing extensively in such property, or having its capital locked up in such securities must lose very heavily.