AUSTRALIAN OPINION OF THE BANK OF NEW ZEALAND.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXIII, Issue 211, 12 September 1901, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN OPINION OF THE BANK OF NEW ZEALAND.

In the course of an article dealing with the latest balance-sheet of the Bank of New Zealand) the Sydney Bulletin re-marks:—-The Bank of New Zealand has, in six years of State control, now paid for the Colonial Bank's business in full out of its earnings, so the drain I on the earnings to pay for this new asset is ended, and only the profits remain. It has also written off £414,855 of old losses (£234,353 in the bank and £180,502 in the Assets Realisation Board), but, as the Board has accumukted a deficit of £104,624 at the same time, the neb provision for the old management's losses is £310,231 ; Considering the immense increase in earnings, the reduction in interest through the repayment of £500,000 of, theGovernment'sadvance and £375,000 of the A?sets Board's debentures, the improved position of the Board's' properties, and the fact iihat the purchase money of the Colonial Bank is now wholly provided for, there should now be from £160,000 to £200,000 a year available to clear off the old losjes. The loan from the Government is now

reduced to £2,000,000, the other £500,000 having been repaid. If this loan is treated as capital, then the earnings are at the rate of £l2 53 7d par cent, per annum on the total funds (Government loan, £2,000,000 ; shareholders' capital, £421,860; resrve fund, £23,474; total, £2,445,834). But if the Government loan is treated p i a fixed deposit, then the profits, so far as the private shareholders are concerned, are £210,665, equal to £l7 6s Id per cent, per annum on the shareholders' capital and reserve land. I No other bank in Australasia, and, 'piobably no other bank in tha worid, shows such results as the Bark of Ni w Zealand does under its State control. Unfortunately for the shareholders, these profifs have to go to pay off the frightful losses which the old private management left behind it. The Go-1 vernment has done all this for the shareholders without fee or reward ; it merely ge f s the 4 per cent, which its £2,000,000 advance actual y costs it. And the private shareholders, so far as the writer knows, haven't even presented Premier Seddon with a walking stick.