Manawatu Herald THURSDAY, MARCH 10. 1921. SIGN OF THE TIMES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2249, 10 March 1921, Page 2

Manawatu Herald THURSDAY, MARCH 10. 1921. SIGN OF THE TIMES.

IT must be many years since ilie New Zealand bank rale for advance.- Mood at 7 per cent., Hie figure to which it was raised on Thursday last, says the Auckland Star. •‘The increase is a sign of the time.-, and was not unexpected. The bank returns for the December quarter of 1020 showed how the financial current was running. There was an increase of fourteen millions in the advances over the total for the corresponding quarter of 1019, and whereas then the excess of deposits over advances was thirteen and ahalf millions, by the end of 1920 it had dropped to less than two millions. The huge volume of imports in the last six months of 1920 waiargelv responsible for this increase in advances. Importers were receiving far more than they expected, and the hanks had to carry a great deal of the load. Since December the situation has been further strained by external and internal inlluences —the depression a'broad, the heavy demands for income tax, and the necessity for subscribing to the Government’s loan. The payment of income tax, which nominally amounts to as much as 7s (id in tlie pound on higher incomes, but in reality is more in many eases, is hitting some concerns hard, and the banks are unable to be as accommodating its usual.”