Bank of New Zealand

Feilding Star, Volume X, Issue 50, 4 October 1888, Page 2

Bank of New Zealand

THE COMMITTEE'S REPORT. I PBB TOUTED PBESS ASSOCIATION. J Auckland, October 3. The Bank of New Zealand held a special meeting at 2 o'clook to»day. The shareholders' Committee's special report was read hy Judge Gillies. The report stated : "Our appointment implied widespread anxiety on the part of shareholders to have independent assurances ot the bank's real positiou. The conviction of the ability of the Bank to meet its liabilities was confirmed on examination. At the same time the position of the Bank was unsatisfactory to shareholders through depreciation in value of securities and many accounts in liquidation or which ought to be, the coyer for which had become obviously inadequate, altogether involving losses the Directors had not faced and which on rigorous examination will absorb the reserve fund and nearly one-third of the bank's paid uo capital, £800,000 in all. We are satisfied that under good management and judicious relations securities to the amount named should ever all losses. It is obvious to us that for years the bank has been paying a rate of dividend it ought not to have paid. Securities- have been held and accounts kept going in the vain hope of recovery to the values plaoed upon them in what was in fact a period of inflation, and supervening upon this, heavy losses in Australia brought matters to the climax we have now to face. The necessity for radical changes in administration, and for an increase of the Bank's capital, became immediately apparent, and the Committee ob« serves that, through death and retirement, the directorate and general management have already been reconstituted. So much capital being lost, it must be written eff and shares be reduced .from £10 to £7, leaving £700,000 of paid ap capital and one million of reserve liability." . . - ,' '. "V "