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New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4199, 4 September 1874, Page 2

The Gazette, a few days ago, contained the usual statement of tho liabilities and assets of tho Banks of, or doing business in, the Colony, for the quarter ending 30th Juno last. Since then our Melbourne exchanges have placed us in possession of similar information as to the Banks of and in Victoria. It may not be uninteresting to notice some of the figures, without instituting a comparison, in the spirit of the frog which tried to inflate itself to the dimensions of the-bull,,and suffered from the consequences. The notes in circulation of the Banks of New Zealand at tho date named amounted to £856,832 : in Victoria, £1,437,836. Tho depositsnotbearinginterest amounted to £2,740,497. In Victoria they were £5,190,898. The amount bearing interest here was £1,560,800 ; and there it was £6,660,483. The total amount of deposits was thus £4,301,357, as compared with £11,851,381; but as the Victorian accounts before us do not show separately tho amounts they held for the Government, which those of tho New Zealand banks do, we may add the amount held for tho State in this Colony (£1,220,138) to tho other deposits to make the comparison fair, and the figures then stand at £5,521,495 for New Zealand as against the total stated above for Victoria—a relation not at all to tho discredit of this Colony, seeing that tho population only amounts in round numbers to some 300.000, while that of Victoria is about 800.000, and our Australian neighbor has been for twenty-three years a goldproducing country, while tho gold-mines of this Colony are only eleven or twelve years old; have been developed under extraordinary physical difficulties ; and in the reefing districts may only now bo said to be in the beginning of their history. Tho total liabilities of the Banks in this Colony were £6,460,143, while their assets amounted to £9,525,026. They held £1,301,014 in gold ; £266,249 in gold and silver bullion ; notes and bills of other banks to the amount of £30,404 ; tho balances they owed to other Banks amounted to £30,120, and the amounts due to them in the same way aggregated £66,537. They also held landed property of tho value of £153,773; and while the hills in circulation only ran to £61,693, they hold notes and bills discounted to' tho amount of £3,584,669. They wore possessors of Colonial Government securities to the amount of £161,538, and other funded securities valued at £7600. The debts duo to the Banks, exclusive of those abandoned as bad, amounted to

£3,698,232, and they held securities not embraced under other heads of account to the amount of £254,947. The largest amounts of deposits, whether bearing or not bearing interest, and exclusive of the Government account, were held by the Bank of New Zealand. The Union Bank comes next on' the list ; and the National Bank, young as it is, stands third, holding £380,256 on which no interest is paid, and £283,889 bearing interest. The notes and bills discounted by the various Colonial Banks amounted to :—Bank of New Zealand, £1,629,554 ; Union, £653,312; National, £513,167; New South Wales, £412,873 ; and Australasia, £375,761. Landed property was held by the Banks in the following proportions ;—Union Bank, £45,000 ; National, £31,951 ; Australasia, £30,908; New Zealand, £24,826; and New South Wales, £21,085. We have not conveniently at hand the means of making a comparison between the figures presented by the Colonial Banks now and twelve months ago, or with the previous quarter. To those wo shall probably revert on another occasion. They indicate, however, a thriving and increasingly prosperous condition, in which the sound and satisfactory state of the affairs of the country is truly reflected. The Victorian returns have been carefully and comparatively analysed, and the results are somewhat curious. It is shown, for example, that the amount of the note circulation in the quarter ending Juno, is £41,789 less than in the previous quarter. The deposits fell off to an extent of £648,517—m05t largely, of course, upon those not bearing interest. This decrease, as regards money hot bearing interest, applied to eight out of the ten Banks doing business in Victoria, the exceptions being the Colonial, and the English Scottish and Australian Chartered ; and, as regards deposits bearing interest, to seven out of the ton, the three which experienced an increase being the Victoria, Union, and National. The advances made by the Banks, as compared with those of the previous quarter, were not less than £403.675, all the Banks contributing excepting the Victoria and the Oriental. The circulation of notes in thequarterwas £1,437,836, the deposits £11,351,381, and the advances were £16,172,038 —leaving the public due £2,882,821 to the Banks, as compared with £1,788,840 in the previous quarter. The customers of the Banks, therefore, had drawn upon them to an extent of £1,000,091 moro than in the preceding, three months, while the coin held was less by £278,631. All the Banks but two — the Colonial and the Commercial —held more cola than equalled the amount 'of their note circulation. The natural result of the lessened deposits and the greater demand upon the Banks —probably due. to an increase both of genuine trade and commerce and of speculation—was an increase in the price of money, which the best authorities on the subject think is likely to continue. It may be added, as au instructive note, showing how some Colonies progress, that the Colonial banking institutions now at work in Victoria —to say nothing of the Savings’ Banks, the Land Mortgage Institute, the numerous Building Societies, <fco.—now have more notes in circulation, more deposits, and more coin, make more advances, and do a larger business' generally, than the English Banks which have branches in that Colony.