BANKS' PROFITS RESENTED

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 415, 25 July 1928, Page 13

BANKS' PROFITS RESENTED

FARMERS VOICE KEEN CRITICISM STRUGGLING THROUGH SLUMP (From Our Resident Reporter. ». WELLINGTON. To-day. That the banks made profit? while the farmers struggled through the slump was the keynote of some keen criticism of New Zealand financial institutions at yesterday’s sitting of the Farmers’ Union Conference. Various speakers alleged that when the farmers were in the depths «>f the slump the banks were paying larger dividends than ever, and that the talk of an agricultural bank had probably mor© to do with the reduction of interest than anything else. Finally the following resolution was carried: “That under the present conditions the profits derived from the Bank of New Zealand, from its business in recent years, are out of all proportion to the conditions of the primary producers of the country. The matter requires investigation during the present session, and such investigation should aim at a comparative statement of returns from banking and farming operations. Furthermore, it is the imperative duty of the Government to exercise a watchful and rigid supervision over the operations of the Bank of New Zealand by intervening when it unduly oppresses the primary producer.” A remit urging the formation of agricultural banks was also carried. The conference passed remits urging the Government to give full effect to the report of the Rural Credits Commission, that the Legislature should consider measures to direct the flow of capital from city investments to the farming industry, and that the conference supports free trade with Great Britain.