BANKING MONOPOLY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 450, 27 February 1909, Page 2

BANKING MONOPOLY.

In the current number of The Citizen, the new Wellington fortnightly, appears a striking article by Mr J. B. Hobart on the banking monopoly and its relation to the present industrial depression. The article is the most outspoken criticism of the New Zealand banks that has appeared for many years. Mr Hobart has made a special study of his subject, and whether one agrees or disagrees with his arguments they will provide food for thought. He contends that “New Zealand, with all its boasts of liberty and advancement, is the only country which has banking laws creating a banking monopoly ; and the net result is a state of depression altogether unwarranted by the real wealth power of this country.” The general trend of the article may be gathered from the following passage : —“ Under the cloak of saving the Bank of New Zealand it was decreed that no new banks could enter or be organised for business in New Zealand. We have to-day only five banks feebly trying to do business in a field which is much too large for them. We have banks so overpressed by their policy of helping nonproducers, land speculators, and English interests, that the interests of the community at large must suffer. We have by reason of the principles on which banks carry on their business a state of affairs which at any moment may bring about a recurrence of the times of 1892. This may appear incredible, but it is nevertheless true. Owing to our outrageously foolish banking laws there is no possible relief to be expected from the five banks which hold the monopoly of banking in the Dominion.”