Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1909. CAUTION?

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 4502, 11 December 1909, Page 2

Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News.

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1909. CAUTION?

This above all—to thine own self be true, ind xt must follow as the night the day Thou canst not then be false to any man Shakespeare.

The following pregnant word of caution from Mr II - Be uchamp, Chairman of Directors of the Bank of New Zealand, at the half-yearly mee'ing at Wellington on the 3rd inst deserves careful consideration by all who wish well to the Dominion. He said : “ The prospects before us are decidely good, and this bank, with its ramifica- i tions ami close connection with the producers, must necessarily benefit. I cannot, however, refrain from repeat'ng a warning note. Caution must continue to mark the policy of the trading community, and the land speculators throughout the Dominion must endeavour to moderate .their views on values. New Zealand has greatly increased her obligations in recent years, 1 and while she is well able to faithfully meet all engagements, there in no reason why the people should be Handicapped in their work by ridiculously high land values. “ Caution ” should be the watchword of the people now and always.” That land values are ridiculously high . in may parts of New Zealand can be easilj’ demonstrated by anyone wbo goes about with his eyes open. Land is cheaper in the suburbs of London, Manchester, and Liverpool and other large cities in England, where there are millions of people to create a market, than it is in the suburbs of our New Zealand cities where the population

of the whole country is only Bbout a million. Wellington is now suffering acutely from the high prices paid foi land during the last six years, and in other parts of the Dominion farm L nds went as high as £4*> to £SO per acre and. in the suburbs, building sites realised fabulous prices. The warning given by Mr Beauchamp is not unnecessary or out of place, because we learn from reliable sources that very exhorbitant prices are being demanded and, in some instances, obtained, for land in the suburbs of our principal cities. As for land for business sites in principal streets in the cities and towns of New Zealand, it is becoming almost prohibitive, and if shopkeepers and general traders do not look out they will find too much of their profits absorbed in rent. We are informed that it is very questionable whether business people can afford legitimately, with justice to themselves, to pay more than a third of their income for rent of shops and dwellings, because of the uncertainties of trade, and because bad debts and high wages and general expenses now come to so much that the net profits of business scarcely warrant more than a third of one’s income for total rent of shops and dwellings. It is now founi that whatever net profit is made by business people is not very great and is worked bard for. Land speculation does no place any real and lasting good, and Mr Beauchamp’s timely warning may do much good. There is this about it: It means that the banks are not going to advance money foi land speculation, and a good job too, because in such speculations the very few win and the great majority lose. Legitimate

land buying is all right, j The Banks report is very encouraging and we must congratulate New Zealand on the recovery to a sound position of this Institution. The State has been amply justified and rewarded by its guarantee which saved the Bank some 1 years ago. The money market has improved and the trade turnover has increased. Mr Beauchamp remarked : ! “The exports show a substantial surplus over the imports, aud, so far as we are concerned, that amounts to a favourable trade balance. This point may be omphasised by figures. The values of the exports and imports for the year ended September 30th, 1900, compared with the figures for the two previous years, show as follows :

(Note). —These figures do not include specie). It will be seen from the figures I have quoted that, whi'e in 1907-8 the imports exceeded the exports by £1,380,281, for the year just ended the exports exceeded the imports by £3,784,151. We are in effect back to the position we were in 1906-7, which was the year of cur extreme prosperity. It is necessary for this country to show a substantial ex* cess of exports oves imports, becauso we have to meet annually a very Jarge interest liability in connection with public and private indebtedness. We have, it would seem, practically recovered the ground lost in 1907-8 and we may now reasonably anticipate a further forward movement.” So far as the Bank itself is concerned it is prosperous, and during the year it has afforded considerable accommodation to its customers. One good feature about it, is that it is confining itself to legitimate banking, and is thus avoiding the class of business which brought it to grief some years ago. The prosperity of New Zealand is reflected by the Bank and we congratulate the management on its success

» Exports. Imports. j Year £ £ ! ieoc-7 19,891,846 16,071,887 ! 1907-8 16,370.587 17,750,868 14,916,005 j 190S-9 18,700,156