Bank of New Zealand.

Feilding Star, Volume XVII, Issue 201, 27 February 1896, Page 2

Bank of New Zealand.

(Per Press Association.) Wellington, This Day. At the half- yearly meeting of the shareholders of the Bank of New Zealand this morning the chairman said the Bank's legitimate business was well maintained at every point, and every effort was being used to cast off connection with the few remaining things which cannot be classed as proper banking. The authority to issue preference shares to the value of half a million, bearing a fixed dividend of 3i per cent per annum has been utilised and shares to that amount issued to the Queou as the prpperty of the colony in exchange for debentures payable in London for a like amount and yielding similar interest. The debentures mentioned are 140 w worth more than their face value, and could be sold readily at a premium, but under the Act any premium must be set apart as a reserve fund. He regretted the legal difficulties in connection with the inscription of the New Zealand Government stock in .London transferred to this Bank were not yet surmounted. The chairman referred with pleasure to the improvement in the prices of wool and grain which would materially benefit the bank. After making mention of the importance of the revival of the gold mining industry in Auckland and West Coast, also, in the timber trade, he congratulated the shareholders on the business of the colon 3 r being much better than last year.