Poverty Bay Standard. PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY, THURSDAY AND SATURDAY MORNINGS. GISBORNE: THURSDAY, APRIL 12, 1883.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1308, 12 April 1883, Page 2

Poverty Bay Standard. PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY, THURSDAY AND SATURDAY MORNINGS. GISBORNE: THURSDAY, APRIL 12, 1883.

“ A curious state of affair* came to light at 1 the laat meeting of the Taranaki Harbor Board, which has not yet been settled satisfactorily. The Bank of New Zealand claim a deposit of £20,000 now lying in the National Bank, because Mr King had pro- ' ndsed it. This promise Mr King had given i on his own authority, without even consulting a member of the Board. But the strange I put of the transaction is that Mr King had forgotten his promise, and together with Mr B ayly, the Treeurer of the Board, had made another one to the Manager of the National Bank. Three of the members of the Board supported Mr King in adhering to his first promise, but four opposed him, and it was only by his making use of his casting vote that the resolution was carried which provides for the deposit being placed tn the Bank of New Zealand, The end is not yet come. 1 ' Thia end has not yet come, but this end is rapidly approaching, and it Is this—put in plain words—the power which the Bank of New Zealand is assuming means destruction to the Colony for a timr. The tentacles of the golden colored octopus are in every put of New Zealand, gradually doting, and we, in common with very many others, may ask why 7 Can we tell them ? No; it would require the pen of the greatest financier in the world to expose and expand upon the workings of the few who, for selfish nuns, endeavor to secure what ? A name Well they have names in comJ mon with all who occupy God’s earth, but what are those names ? Each is known as Mammon, Mammon No 1, Mammon No 2, and so on. Edgar Allan Poe in describing the wondrously written “Bells,” speaks of the “neither brute nor human,” and so we may fiialy speak of those who by the aid of capital at their back, grind to the earth the working class. Aye, and not alone grind them, but keep them where they have been cast. In this world a man has to give in to

many things mJ ’'knuckle under,” but •'therejnever waa a throw but what there was a atop for it," The proud position held amongst Banka by the Bank of New Zealand in New Zealand, is in consequence of—well, the positions occupied by ita Directors. This, however, is where the laugh comes in—the Directors of the Bank of New Zealand are, with but few exceptions, the shareholders in the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company. The profit on any loan transaction may be set thus :—Shareholders, •01; Directors, '99. The grasping, greedy, hungry love of the command of money is clearly shown by the extract above. £20,000 is too much to allow the National Bank to have the use of, and even a paltry £20,000 would be found of advantage to the Bank of New Zealand, and they, therefore, Inst after it. To an institution such as that of the premier Bank of the Colony so trivial a sum should be but a mere mosquito bite ; but no, the insatiable love of gold demands that the money shall be theirs’, and theirs’ alone. The facta are placed in the instance quoted, and plainly stated, but as we have asserted they tend to show that the grip is tightening, and we are of opinion that as our motto we shall have to adopt the words of Sir Walter Scott— Now gallant Saxon hold thine own, No maiden’s arm is round thee thrown ; That grasp so tight thou well might feel, Through bars of brass or triple steel

In writing in this strain we are in a measure, kicking against the pricks, but we care not. We have a duty to perform, and we should not be doing our duty if we did not hold up to the light of day the workings of a few which if unchecked will lead to the ruin of many,