N.S.W. SAVING BANK

Hokitika Guardian, 24 April 1931, Page 6

N.S.W. SAVING BANK

POLITICIANS BLAMED

FOR DISTURBING CONFIDENCE

(Australian Press Association.)

SYDNEY, April 122.

Tlie Sydney Sun says, editorially that the closing of the State Savings Bank temporarily is the result of politics. The Australian politicians, it says, hold that nothing is more important than politics. For six months this bank has been treated by politicians in all of the Parliaments as a means to discredit other politicians. It began, it says, with the Nationalists who made an election forecast that if Mr Lang became Premier the hank wot fid be imperilled. Then the Federal Treasurer, Mr Ph G. Theodore, commenting unnecessarily on the Savings Bank Commissioners’ announcements as being efforts to convince the people that Mr Lang could not lay his hands on their savings. Mr Lang’s own action in resorting to repudiation, and also the conduct of some members of the Federal caucus in their hostility towards Mr Lang had been deliberately shaking the credit of the bank. All of these politicians had been responsible for disturbing the confidence on which this bank, like other banks, must exist. One legislators had advised the electors publicly to take their money out of the hank, and so help to destroy the .iniquities of the capitalistic system. A general assault, on the bank had been a notable feature of the Labour politics for the past nine months, and neither Mr Lang nor his enemies coukl escape censure for what had happened.

COMMONWEALTH BA NK. GAINS BY CHANGE, SYDNEY, April 23. The Savings Bank crisis caused a tremendous shock throughout the State the actual suspension, of operations being unexpected, owing to the repeated assurances in official and unofficial quarters concerning the safety and the vast resources of this institution. However, thousands of depositors today bemoan the fact that they were not among the never-ending stream of customers who withdrew either the whole or portion of their savings. It is stated small tradespeople arc likely to he inconvenienced, and among thorn scores of elderly people who took full advantage of the liberal interest the hank provided .on current accounts. Quite a number of depositors went to the Commonwealth Bank to-day to try to.learn when the Government Savings Bank would re-open, or whether there was any hope of the Commonwealth Bank tiding them over the present difficulties. The business to-dav at the Commonwealth Bank was above normal, with a fairly general excess of deposits over withdrawals. Some other banks report substantial increases in depositors.' 1 A question was asked in the Federal House of Representatives at Canberra to-day by Mr Ward, the newly-elected member for East Sydney, whether it were true that there was now a run oil the Commonwealth Bank as the result of which it was likely to close its doors shortly.

The Prime Minister replied that this question was entirely unwarranted. U was without any foundation, and the rumour, he said, existed entirely in the mind of Mr Ward, and nobody else.

THEODORE’S PLAN. VINDICATED BY EVENTS. LONDON, April 22. “The Times” City Editor says: The closing of the New South AVales Savings Bank is the. outcome of Mr Lang’s policy of repudiation. His reckless talk has (naturally unnerved the depositors. In order to give the. necessary assistance the Commonwealth Bank may have to increase the fiduciary issue. Although 1 the Bank has frowned on Mr Theodore’s Fiduciary" Bill, such an issue to meet an emergency of this kind differs fundamentally from a deliberate policy of permanent inflation. In the one case, the depositors have a claim to be paid in currency, and in the other case there is no sucli claim, the object of inflation being to raise the price level. In times of grave emergency a prompt, but temporary, issue of fiduciary notes is unavoidable.

COMMONWEALTH BANK BILL. MR SCULLIN’S STATEMENT. jCANBERRA, April 24. When. the Commonwealth Bank Bill was in Committee, Air Seullin said gold must be sent away to meet our commitments in London, otherwise Australia will be in serious danger of imminent default. The purpose of this Bill is to allow the abolition of the gold reserve of fifteen million pounds. The second reading of the Bill was carried bv nineteen votes to seventeen. The Senate deferred the second read, ing of the Central Reserve Bank Bill for six months, which is tantamount to a direct rejection of the Bill, which lias already been before the Senate for over six months.