The Feilding Star. Oroua & Kiwitea Counties Gazette. Published Daily. MONDAY, SEPT. 24, 1894. BANK AMALGAMATION.

Feilding Star, Volume XVI, Issue 76, 24 September 1894, Page 2

The Feilding Star. Oroua & Kiwitea Counties Gazette. Published Daily. MONDAY, SEPT. 24, 1894. BANK AMALGAMATION.

It is openly affirmed in the lobbies that the House will not sanction the Bank amalgamation agreement as at present drawn up, aud if such amalgamation is agreed to at all, it will have to be effected on quite a different basis than that proposed. Accepting; this as an indication of the feeling of some Members on the question, we may anticipate that the proposals if they are brought up for debate to-morrow evening will meet with considerable opposition, but if the Government have determined that the measure shall pass the members of the party will have to accept the inevitable and vote as they are ordered. In the past the Premier has shown that he will stand no nonsense from his followers, and it is not likely in so important a matter as this, he will allow any one of them absolute freedom of action. On the other hand, it is quite within the bounds of possibility that since the terms of the agreement were drawn up there have been new developments whereby the position has ' been materially changed, and the , Ministers themselves may be respon- , sible for the rumor. The stumbling block very likely lies in this : The 1 Estates Company is to be separated from the proposed new bank, which is only right and proper, but by this j separation the shareholders of the Bank of New Zealand are to bear the ■ brunt of the realisation, while the shareholders of the Colonial Bank are to have the cream of the business for ' little or nothing. A writer in a Wellington paper, " Mercator," who evidently has some knowledge of the t subject, says that the shareholders of \ the Bank of New Zealand are not • likely to agree to the proposal at all. He says further : "As an indication of tbe general feeling regarding the terms of the amalgamation, I would point out that when negotiations were in progress, during the end of August 1 or early in September, Colonial Bank shares were down to 15s, while Bank of New Zealand were about 25s ; but when the terms of amalgamation were published Colonial Bank shares rose to 25s or 308, while Bank of New Zealand fell and are falling to nigh zero." Of course since then there has been a change for the better as regards the last named institution.