The Feilding Star. TUESDAY, JULY 26, 1892.

Feilding Star, Volume XIV, Issue 16, 26 July 1892, Page 2

The Feilding Star. TUESDAY, JULY 26, 1892.

It is a very remarkable fact that whenever anyone proposes a scheme which is to " prove of incalculable advantage " to the farmer, the farmer is always expected to provide the necessary funds. The latest idea is that promulgated by Mr Maciuto^L, the member for Wallace, who wants to establish a State Bank. He thinks that with £4,000,000 capital £2,000,---000 of which should be paid up at once, a profitable business could be done, and farmers be supplied with whatever money they wanted at very low rates of interest. His plan is exquisite in its simplicity. Every adult in the colony, of whom there are 400,000, is to pay a sum of £10 half of which sum required to be found at once. Nothing could be easier. Still, as Mr Mackintosh thinks that there are probably a few thick-headed people who would need convincing, or rather converting to his views, he makes the offer to Visit every " town and village hamlet" — provided always that his expenses are paid — when he would convince the most obtuse, and persuade all to be of his way of thinking. We fear that his easiest converts would be those who are not the fortunate possessors of the necessary ten pounds. Those who have the money would, naturally enough, be more obdurate. We have never had reason to change the opinion we have always held, namely, that a farmer can invariably find plenty to do with his money m a young country like this where he can with certainty earn a better profit by stocking and working his own property, than by putting it out in a financial speculation the nature of which, and its conduct, he can neither understand nor help. That a State Bank will ever be established in this coloDy is extremely doubtful, but if ever one is, it will be originated by a recognised financier, and not by one of the small fry who appear to imagine that a bale of paper and a hand press are the only things needed to " start a bank." The experiences of the residents in tbe other colonies lately, in connection with "financial institutions for the good of the people " should prove a warning to New Zealanders.