THE BANK LEGISLATION.

Feilding Star, Volume XVII, Issue 74, 24 September 1895, Page 2

THE BANK LEGISLATION.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE STAR. Sir, — A few days will witness the amalgamation of the New Zealand and Colonial Banks, and further liabilities of unknown proportions will be added to the already weighty bank burdens that this wretched colony has to carry. Verily we are wisely governed I The Government aid to the Bank of New Zealand was from first to last a questionable transaction ; it was a dangerous precedent, and a step that, once taken, as we now see, could not be receded from. But what the House could be thinking of to deliberately prepare the way for the business of the Colonial Bank being bought by the Bank of New Zealand is a mystery that time may probably reveal. Is the Bank of New Zealand going to be strengthened by the absorption of the Colonial? It is not reasonable to suppose so, it is not common sense. If the latter was likely to pay dividends during the next few years, would the directors and shareholders sink their profits, in the fathomless abyss of the New Zealand ? Thereps great good prospects of profit there isn't there ? No ! Of two evils the Colonial Bank Directors are choosing the least. There are interesting times ahead. If our legislators were capable of grappling with the occasion, the danger might not be so great, butthe country is getting strongly suspicious that they are incapable of rising to the emergency. The colony has had to come to the rescue of not one, but of two Banks ; that's what it amounts to, and a stone has been put around Zealandia's fair neck which may sink her some day. The Banks have some able friends in the House, able financiers — in the interests of the Banks. I am, &c, Neptune.