The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, JULY 15, 1903. THE ASSETS BOARD.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXV, Issue 164, 15 July 1903, Page 2

The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, JULY 15, 1903. THE ASSETS BOARD.

When eight years ago the State very wisely cams to the aesis'arce ot th. Bink cf New Zealand, it was found that the Bank was weighted with ai. i enormous quantity of real estate which ] was not immediately realisable, and a i Board was formed for the purpose of taking them over from the Bank, and realising on them from time to time. The Board has been most successful in its management of these estates, and bids fair to come out of tha business with profit to itself and credit to the colony • There are those, however, who complain that the Board is not carrying out its functions to realise as expeditiously as possible, in fact that it i> rather delaying the process th-n otherwise The OhristchUich Press hat. persistently opposed the Board, and urged its being forced to realise the properties in their hands. We are inclined to thick that while things are going so well the less the Bank and the Assets Board are interfered wirh the belter. There is no harm in giving the public the views of the Press on the subject, as public opinion carries h good deal of weight in matters of this kind, and to form a correct opinion the public should have both sides of the question before them, In the course of a leading article on the subject the Press says:-The annual rtparfc again shows that the Board steadily ignores the object for which it was founded. It was formed eight years ago for the etpress purpose of taking over the assets of the Bank of New Zealand and turnirg them intc cash. The term for which its debsn tures were guaranteed by the State expires next year, and the sales, including stock, amount to £964,678. Loak ing at the matter from the most favourable point of view, therefor , half the properties remain on hand, and this in face of the fact that never before in the history of the colony, except, perhaps, in the " boom " of the earlj seventies, has there been such an active demand for land as there is at the present time. The very tone of thr general manager's report, as he piiie himself on the percentage of interest earned on the station properties, shows that Lis chief desire is to make a g ied appearance of the properties ia the balance-shret as revenue-earning cou cerns rather than to carry out the object for which the Board was footed, viz., to turn them io f o cash. In poiir of fact, as we have btfore remarked, the Board ought to be called the A'settConservation Board. To speak of it as a Realisation Board is to call it by s name that is altogether inappropriate and out of place." The Press remark, that it was never intended that th< best properties should be kept back and nursed with the object of making p. good show in the balance-sheet. Th obj ei of forming the Board was tha; the assets should be placed on the market and realised at the first favourable opportunity. During tte past year sales to the extent of .£138,598 have been made, as compared with £ 139,898 during the previous year. Considering the "earth hunger "tha; has prevailed, can anybody say that this is a reasonable rate of progress to make with a process of realisstion that ought to be completed as rapidly as possiblo so as to lift tha incubus off the Bank of New Zealand and incidentally upon the colony of New Zealand as guarantor ? Does anybody believe thai if the assets had been placed in the hands of tha bank fur realisation, or if the business was entiustud to a good liim of lai d agent", the work of realisation would be carried on in this fashion ? We have no hesitation io saying From the facts within our ownknowlelge that there has been little disposition on the part of the Bo:rd to push sales. Not only have they failed to advertise their properties in the way that would be adopted by an energetic private firm anxious to do business, but even when would-be buyers have written to 'hem in reference to particular properties, th«j r ; >plua re:it hace been dibtinqly of a " putiiug-off"] , character. Either they have been asked, I to make an offer, which they are not at

al! likely to do, or e'as thsy were told fcbe Bojrd contempla'ei doing something with the particular propsrty at soma future date, when the inquirer would reciva a further comtnuiiaifcion from the Board. That in not th.i way to do business. "Parliament," the. Press conclud 8, "should now take the| matter in hind and transfer the reali-] satiou of the remaning assets to the! directors of the 6.ink of New Zealand.; The bank hag pro-pared exc.edingly] under their management, and it will be to their interest to relieve it from these properties aa soon as possible, so that i; may s'art afre.h wi h an absolutely clean sheet, and confine itself in the future to legitimate backing business Vone. So soon as that is done we bo lieve it will be the most prosperous institution of the kind to be found south of the equator,"