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Hokitika Guardian, 16 June 1928, Page 2

The position revealed of the financial year of the -Bank of New Zealand at yesterday’s meeting of shareholders, is very satisfactory indeed in the light of the Dominion position. The Bank’s busines is so much Dominion business that the creditable position" of . the former reflects a creditable position of the lntter. Ministers often talk glibly about “rounding the corner,” or “the outlook ahead,” but there is very little of a concrete nature visible to substantiate their expressed optimism re-

garding matters financial. With the Bank’s figures revealing a realistic balance there is something tangible to convince and impress the mind that tlie general situation as revealed by the banking business of the country is sound. That soundness is in turn a guarantee of the credit of the country as a whole, and is the best index to assure renewed faith in the future of the country. There is no occasion to begrudge the success which the Bank records, for in particular it marks the general prosperity of the Dominion which has met its financial obligations in such a way as to maintain legitimate credit in its financial transactions. It is a good achievement, and the success of the Bank is a sterling advertisement for the public credit, seeing that tho Bank does such a large share of the public business. The management of such an important institution is not a light task, but it would appear to be in such good hands. There is criticism about the bank 'rate of interest, but that was fixed as a measure of safety governing the public credit, and on the whole it has worked out well. The Banking authorities with an inside view of Dominion finance must be the best judges of all safeguards, and as far as can lx? gauged the extra impost has not acted unfairly. Despite higher rate of interest, the Bank profits are lower—that is evidence that the public are not unduly overburdened. The Bank, nevertheless, is able to maintain its rate of.dividend, and that reward cannot be begrudged. A well managed institution on tho lines of the Bank of New' Zealand, is preferable to the country launching a State Bank in regard to which political interference would be more or less inevitable. There would not be the financial safety there now is for the country, and in any case the experiment would he a. risky one. It is a time when it will pay to leavo well alone, and the more the Bank of New Zealand prospers the better for the Dominion as a, whole.