MR. RANKEN AND THE “LYTTELTON TIMES.”

Globe, Volume V, Issue 519, 16 February 1876, Page 2

MR. RANKEN AND THE “LYTTELTON TIMES.”

To the Editor of the Qlohe,

Sir, —Here we have two more instances of the gross financial ignorance of those, who attempt to “ inform the public”—it should be called “mislead the public.” I have already shown the true state of commerce in New Zealand in the small outline papers published in December last in your columns, so that it only remains to pick out a few of the blunders of Mr Ranken, and to dismiss with short notice the Lyttelton Times leader of Saturday, which is indeed beneath contempt, for the only sentence that approaches the truth is that' (near the close of the leader), where th betimes says, “Our critic (Mr Ranken) imperfectly understands,” &c. It should have been “Mr Ranken has a little knowledge, but no understanding at all of New Zealand.” You will see, presently, what a farcical absurdity, a grotesque ignorance, underlies that wonderful statement of the Times “The decrease of the revenue, caused by decrease of imports, shows we are wise.” On the contrary, it shows our financial insanity, as I will now show.

The most important error of Mr Ranken is, “ mixing up the returns of six banks in New Zealand, and treating them as one bank”—a fearful error, contingent on his other great error, * * He forgets that Sir J. lent the railway loan to one bank, and that bank lent it to trade in New Zealand.” All the other errors spring out of these two, which may be termed the parents of all his false conclusions. That a stranger ignorant of New Zealand should fall into such an error is natural because as a rule in all other places it is quite safe to ‘‘lump the banks into one,” and then proceed with the economical effects ; but Sir J. has altered all that. I have not time, nor have you space, Mr Editor, to take the bank returns, to lump the five banks—viz, Union, National, Colonial, New South Wales, and Australasia together in all their essentials, and to put them vis-a-vis the New Zealand ; but if you would, give this in parallel columns to the public, it would startle them not a little. It will suffice to take gazetted returns of the Bank of New Zealand alone 30th September, 1875 (in November Gazette I think)— Assets, B. N. Z, All banks pr Ranken Discounts and 10an5£7,350,000 £7,350,000 £9,109,959 Government, &c.— £457,000 Liabilities, B. N. Z, All banks Ranken Deposits and bi115£7,490,000 £7,490,000 Notes—£42o,ooo £7,090,000 My figures are taken from the Lyttelton Times report of Bank of New Zealand, 4th November, 1875, and they show tbe most extraordinary ignorance on the part of both Ranken and the Times. The coin and bullion cannot very well be contrasted, because of a very reprehensible practice of the accountant of the Bank of New Zealand, in mixing up his coin and cash balances in one sum, without elimination, but counting cash balances the same as gold (which they are not.) Coin and bullion Bank I All banks, Ranken New Zealand— | Bullion, £287,808 I Coin (?) and cash | balance, £654,119 J Total, £941,927 | £1,624,506 Of course Ranken’s figures appear to be monstrously wrong, because the liabilities of Bank New Zealand alone show L820,C00 more than his six banks, which is impossible, as l-6th of 1 cannot be greater than 1. But worse, far worse, while Ranken and the Times, on being compared with the Times' own account of Bank New Zealand assets, show very clearly thus : All Banks... £9,109,959 Bank N.Z. 7,807,000 Difference £1,302,959 between five Banks and Bank of New Zealand. Or according to Ranken, the Bank New Zealand appears bankrupt, which is of course not the truth at all. My figures are correct; if the gazetted report in the commercial of the Times is so, as I am copying from that return. It shows that with £600,000 capital the bank business done is £8,800,000, or nearly fifteen timesaip muck -business as its capital, a most dangerous and imprudent state of things. Now to the root of the matter, the millions borrowed in London, were lent by Sir J. through the Bank of New Zealand to trade, and of course the imports swell up by a sum even larger, because |trade cannot as yet use millions profitably except by importing, and as our revenue depends largely on the revenue went up, swelled out, got very satisfactory as Sir J. ’s friends thought. But the Loan begins to be called in; how? by the Bank from trade. The Times says—- “ Shows our judgment,” “ we are wise,” “ we decrease our imports,” and “ we decrease our revenue.” “We pause till increased production justifies renewed enterprise.” Bosh 1 That leader ought to be framed and glazed, and put in the Chamber of Commerce, a very few years would show that it partakes of the nature of the quadruped, that gets more obstinate as you beat him more. The fact is of course that neither Ranken nor the Times understand the matter at all, and Sir J. must be assumed guilty of ignorance, because otherwise he would be a professional commercial gambler, which of course so ; mighty a genius (as Mr Moorhouse called him) could not be. Out of the population of New Zealand (360,000)

take the women and juveniles, the lunatics, the criminals fixed and floating, and you have left about 70,000 men ; but take from these all labourers, mechanics, i.e., servants generally, and also the members of the Government, and all rich, who take no loans, you have left certainly less than 20,000 men. Sir J. lends two million pounds to twenty thousand men, and the Bank, as per the return I have shown above, lends them another five and a half million pounds, in all one Bank lends seven and a half million pounds to New Zealand—besides the money lent by other banks, loan societies, lawyers, agents. New Zealand is a gigantic pawnbroker’s shop, and the two uncles are Thomas Russell and Sir J. with their clerks and followers. Presently the call will be “ Time’s up, very sorry sir,” business is business, and the pawnbroker steps in. I prefer to think these people ignorant, because if not I see no other conclusion than gross political corruption, buying support, commercial gambling—indeed to a shrewd man, the remarks by Lyttelton Times seem to show a frightful amount of ignorance. “ The Government is well administered, superlatively so/’ “ Ranken thinks New Zealand glorious future in store.” “ Figures show we have property for our debts.” And I am sure that any sensible working man will admit, that though a neighbour, by pawning his land, house, tools, goods, would do a roaring trade , while the money lasted ; yet that there would be a different story, when the pawn tickets fell due. How to save New Zealand from the disastrous results of Sir J’s commercial gambling ? By putting the Bank under our thumb by means of a charter; by using the Sinking Fund, through a branch of the Loudon Stock Fxchange established here; and by having a proper and convertible furded debt for Savings’ Bank and Trust purposes. And now I come to the two worst points of all—the Bank Reserve and the Savings’ Banks’ Funds, The Bank of New Zealand professes to have a reserve of £IBO,OOO, but a reserve that is not put out of the concern into a safe and convertible security is only a farce. The Bank return does not show any investment of the reserve : on the contrary, it is at risk with the whole box and dice of the business, and in a crash could not be available. Tbe poor creatures who put their money in the Savings’ Bank are not aware that their little all is risked in the same concern. It is all very well to talk of Government security if the Bank smashed, the money could only be raised by loan, fresh loan in London, and in the event of a smash, that would mean nothing at all. It is high time that the Chamber of Commerce took up that question at all events — trusts are the most sacred of all responsibilities—although the Cathedral Trust may possibly differ with me, no one has a right to trade with Trust money. I trust that the Sydney Herald, when they read this about Trusts, will take the matter of Trusts up, and see that Trusts’at all events are put beyond the reach of commercial and banking concerns, and I trust (vainly I fear) that the public will see their own Trusts put upon a footing that may surely be trusted. The other day in Christchurch the widows and orphans fund, vested in trustees who walked Cathedral square in all the odour of sanctity, long clothes, and reverential titles, was robbed by a pious man—(memory talks to me about “ who devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence,” &c), but these things ought to be put upon a safer footing, or you will see worse.

To conclude, I hare clearly shown that instead of the financial insanity of “ decrease of revenue, shows decrease of imports, shows we are wise,” the reverse is the truth, we were foolish to take very heavy temporary loans to trade, this caused great imports and great revenue ; now the loans are wanted, we have decreasing imports, decreasing revenue—to be followed by taxation—and I hope when the Lyttelton Times undertakes to criticise New Zealand affairs, it will also undertake to know what it talks about, for knowledge, although useless by itself, is essential to sound criticism. As to Mr Ranken, I hope the above will be a caution to him, that he will hesitate before he mixes up sound banks with unsound, and draws from false premises illogical conclusions. The working classes have enough common sense to understand the pawnbroker’s shop, and to look upon the mighty sweat of intellect with iun, when they see it like Moorhouse, produce only the “ ridiculus mus.” As I, from my quiet hermitage, peep out through the windows of the last 60 0 years upon you little crowd of humans, who trot along beneath my gaze, I ask myself—Why is it that the people are so utterly ignorant of things that so nearly concern them ? False education, answers Minerva ; these creatures will persist in grovelling in Latin, Greek, bastard Latin ( ie , the Eomaunce tongues), pure mathematics, certain novels called history, and other barbarous remnants of a dead past, wiafe all the teeming volumes of nature, politics, and society lie quite unread before them. Oceans of physical truth in chemistry, geology, dynamics, applied mathematics, and physiology. In social science (eg, Europe paying 600 million pounds a year for standing armies and navies), and morality, in politics, law, art of colonization, banking, commerce, shipping, &e, Beautiful ccas of truth covered with fair islands of knowledge, fanned by the breezes of learning, but no adventurous youths steer their souls towards the deserted shores. If people would only “ let the dead past bury its dead,” and “ act, act in the living present,” political corruption and gambling would be a thing of the past. Who is responsible? Our teachers mental, physical, spiritual teachers, standing between the living present and the dead past, they are responsible, and it is still true, woe to him that hideth physical, mental, or moral light under the bushel of a corrupt intellect. Yours. &c., J. W. TREADWELL.