THE BANK OF NEW ZEALAND.

Gisborne Times, Volume X, Issue 970, 17 August 1903, Page 1

THE BANK OF NEW ZEALAND.

(Auckland Herald.)

Those who have watched sympathetically the steady advance of the Bank of New Zealand—and but few have not — will join in heartily congratulating the directors and shareholders upon the work of tho past financial year, as laid before the ordinary genoral meeting at Wellington, After providing tho dividend permitted by the special Act, no less than £174,410 remains to be paid over to the Assets Realisation Board, including tho fixed annual payment of £50,000. This has been done on solid and well-secured business, available assets having been increased during the year by an amount nearly equal to the increase of half-a-million sterling in deposits. An analysis of tho balance-sheet speaks volumes for the care of the management, and must be as satisfactory to the shareholders as it is pleasing to the public. It is to be regretted, however, that the energy and foresightedness of the Bank officials is not to be found reflected in the doings of the Assetb Realisation Board, whoso relations with the Bank provide such a large amount of material for the latter’s report. To say that the Board is disposing very slowly of the trust properties handed over to it by the Bank is o put the case mildly. Although the Board held, on March 31 last, property estimated as worth no less than £1,130,000, the sales during subsequent four months were very little over £60,000. This is during a period when the demand for land is intense, and the valuo of land high, and when it is to the interest of the Bank that every acre shall be realised upon as soon as possible, so as to avoid carrying the huge sum involved over duller years, or the alternative of sacrificing the estates at lower prices than those now ruling. The Board managers claim to be acting solely in the interest of the Bank shareholders, but as the Bank must make good any loss it is impossible to think it benefits them to hold back land from sale when land is in exceptional demand, and to make it difficult for would-be purchasers to obtain definite information when would be purchasers are numerous. The blight of State departmentalism has apparently fallen upon the jßoard, and deprived it of the business acumen which is so happily in ovid ence in the ourrent affairs of the Bank,

It is said that men over forty years old are rarely attacked with typhoid fever. There was only one caso in the Soudan campaign of a man over forty dying of typhoid. Employing 20,000 men, a Japanese mine produces 1,500,0001 b, of oopper monthly. Two Dundee boys died from drinking water while overheated after a walking contest.

At Messrs Sotheby’s recently 29 authograph letters and manuscripts of John Keats were sold for 111070,

Twelve persons were drowned as a result of the collapse of a gangway at A?o£f, on the Don, Russia. / All the arrangements for lighting St. Peter’s Cathedral, Rome, electrically have been completed. A firm of King’s Lynn engineers are placing a combined water and scavengering cart on the market. Recently at Christie’s, the Ascot Cup for 1856 fetched ÜBO 8s 6d, It is 30£in. high, and weighs 2750 z. 15dwt, The Russian navy has been using alcohol boat motors up to 300 horse-power with highly satisfactory results. Forty gallons of milk in one week is the record of a cow belonging to Mr Joseph Carter, of Richmond, Yorks. The old town prison of Berlin has been let to a speculator, who in turn haß let the cells as living apartments. Two immense anchors, supposed to be 200 years old, have been recovered from Irvine bar (Ayshire) by a dredger, For the first time in 150 years at Constantinople a Mahommedan has published a book on anatomy and medicine. One of the most complete electricalpower plants recently installed is that of the Osake military arsenal in Japan. During a funeral service at Omagh, County Tyrone, one of the mourners, was arrested on a charge of embezzlement. Next to Liverpool, Bremen is now the leading cotton market of Europe. In the year 1900 Bremen bought 1,567,045 bales. Large numbers of miners and workmen from the iron districts of Austria are emigrating to America in consequence of an unprecedented stagnation in the home industry. Hundreds of men have been discharged since the beginning of the year. Wages have fallen 50 per cent., and in many instances men are earning less than a gulden a day. Families are suffering severely, and there is little hope of any immediate improvement in the situation, Whole colonies of workers are leaving the country. A bevy of damsels from the drapery establishment of Mr Dobb, of Bayswater (England), gave evidence in the Marylebone Police Court the other day as to why Master Jack Rosen, an apprentice there, aged 15 was sent home. Several of them he kissed, another he pinched, one smacked his face when he attempted to snatch a kiss, and of another he inquired if it was a love story as she perused the newspaper. Also, he was said to have struck the shopwalker, and to have spoken to lady customers before the shopwalker could get near. The magistrate cancelled the indentures, and the bad boy’s father getß Lll out of L2l returned.