THE COLONIAL BANK.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume IX, Issue 308, 14 September 1874, Page 4

THE COLONIAL BANK.

(Canterbury Press.) Anotheradditioa is on the point of be H>iy??f<te ; t<>the monetary institutions of New Zealand. The share list of the Colobibl Bank oaa just been closed, and we^understand that, the requisite ntfittj^. of shares having been subscribed, it will soon commence operation^f A 1W»: heartily Wish it success. AAUhe^hmy -p'ftgreflse*, every institution of the kind, properly managed, wilt be .vseiul in i developing the reEonrces of the. country, as well as profitable. to tfri; shareholders; and we believe there is "room enough for all. fflftlssfik it, However, s mistake on the part of the. promoters, of the new Bank to hold oat each promises of liberal! terms and cheap money to all claf^e^aaAreto be gathered from their prospectus. They will assuredly find that their shareholders, like all other capitalists, Will require the beet returns obtainable for their money, and that none of .|bem.will prefer patriotism to prfcjßtf '^.Wb think, too, it wonld havo been better had they refrained from attacking; the: " three Banks from Australia " by the implications contained in their prospectus that the latter are merely making. New Zealand subservient to their business elsewhere. This statement is not borne out by the facts. We find by the sworn returns for the quarter ending March 31st, 1874, that the amount of their own capital employed by those Banks in New Zealand, in addition to all the deposits obtained in the colony, exceeded £1,600,000. The total amount of deposits, circulation, and ail other funds derivable from the colony, held by the Banks referred td£ac,dording to their sworn returns to th^&lfi March, 1874, was (omitting shillings aod pence) £2,025,940. At the same date, according to the same returns, the total amount employed by the three Banks within the colony was £3,693,839. &o that the total amount these Banks employed within the colony exceeded the funds they derived from the colony by no less a sum tban £M?65,89P r- or upwards of half a million more than the united paid-up capital and reserves of the otber Banks trading in New Zealand, which by these returns appears to be only £1,123,327. Such being the case, it wa^ scarcely fair to these institutions to refrain from putting it forward. In the prospectus before us the colonists are invited to keep " within their own domain the absointe control of their own" money.' 1 This simply means that they ought to withdraw their deposits from the three Baokß alluded- to; a proceeding which would inevitably result in the withdrawal aleo of a large sum with which these Banks are now content to supplement the deposits now derived on the spot. It ennnot be supposed that under such a condition they would continue operations here, as mere investors of capital for which they can find profitable employment elsewhere. And we fail to Bee any advantage in transferring the duty of .employing the deposits they now bold and employ to any otber institution whatever, when the transfer nfasl evidently involve the loss to this C^liray of the large amount of foreign cajtits^.Wjbich the above returns prove the Ban^s in question to be the means of introducing. We believe, as we as we have already eaid, that there is room enough 1 for all. And we deprecate any 1 measure, tending to force capital out of the colony, no matter whence it is derived.