The Daily News. SATURDAY, JUNE 17, 1911. THE BANK OF NEW ZEALAND.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 330, 17 June 1911, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY, JUNE 17, 1911. THE BANK OF NEW ZEALAND.

The jubilee year of the Bank of New Zealand is being celebrated. There would not have been a jubilee year if it had not been for the Government of New Zealand. To-day the Bank is a national institution, standing for national stability and solvency. The history of the Bank is known to most New Zoalanders. It was threatened with insolvency, and the thousand* of depositors would have been involved in ruinous bankruptcy had not the optimism of the late Mr. Seddon and the no less remarkable optimism and commercial acumen of the then Colonial Treasurer, Sir J. G. Ward, seen a way out. Since the State went to the rescue th'e history of the bank has been one of gradually increasing opulence and prosperity. By State aid it has been enabled to wipe out the memory of those "bad old times," and it is able to point to its revenue of one million sterling and to an nlmost complete annihilation of its liabilities. In fact, in the words of Mr. H. Beauchamp, "the opportunity was afforded the bank to nurse its unliquid assets until they could be advantageously realised." After the reconstruction of the bank, a period of the most careful finance necessarily ensued, so that it gradually evolved from a concern that paid no dividend to one that this year distributes 15 per cent, to ordinary shares and 10 per cent, to preference shares, the peculiarity being that the State, which gav ■ the bank" its lifeblood, receives the lesser dividend, and the ordinary shareholders, who could not be shareholders but for the State's aid, receive the greater. In fact, the State has exercised its unique power in mmking it possible for its citizens to benefit to a much greater extent than the most hopeful could have wislied. The Assets Realisation Board is gone, the stigma on the bank is gone, and there remains an institution admirably organised and eminently managed, possessing the confidence of the whole j people, and looked up to as a national institution of .the highest importance and integrity. But for the faith, hope and statesmanship of Mr. Soddon and his successor in office, the glowing report for the jubilee year could not ha°ve been written; and the general progress of the Dominion could not possibly have been so great. New Zealand owes much to the Bank of Xew Zealand, but it owes more to the two men who would not, despite sturdy opposition, see it die, mid who revived it so splendidly.