BANK FAILURES.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2510, 1 June 1893, Page 4

BANK FAILURES.

London, May 28. Tho Westminster Gazette, commenting on the ofl’er of assistance to Australia by the Cape Government, says it is a proof of the solidairty and faith of the colonies in their own and each others’ future. Melbourne, May 29. The Premier has cabled thanking the Cape Government for their offer of assistance. A meeting of the creditors of the Standard Bank and National Bank of Australasia agreed to the reconstruction scheme. May 29. The depositors and shareholders in the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney have unanimously approved of the reconstruction scheme. The committee of the Scotch depositors unanimously support the Bank of Victoria’s reconstruction scheme. May 30. The Times says that the Australian banks are now withdrawing gold from Melbourne, and also stopping a portion of the late shipments at Columbo. Sydney, May 30. The depositors and shareholders in the City of Melbourne Bank have accepted the reconstruction scheme. The new Governor, in the course of an interview in regard to the financial outlook, took a hopeful view of the situation. For the sake of the currency he thought there ought to bo Federation, as a currency established on a federal basis would give greater security than was now the rase to the whole of Australia in the English market.

A STATE BANK. Discussing the bunk failures in Australia the Bulletin observes : “ A State Bank is the only one which can have even a reasonable semblance of solidity, and amid the crumbling of joint-stock financiers, great and small, the necessity for such an institution grows every day more apparent. The one enduring advantage of a State Bank is that it cannot, by any possibility, go insolvent until the State itsedf goes insolvent; it will not necessarily break even then, but it cannot break till then. It is just within the bounds of possibility that it may enter on a riotous career of mismanagement as most private enterprises of its kind do at some time or other, that it may make advances on bad securities, and lose its reserve fund ; but while the State keeps afloat it will remain as secure after these disasters as before. It will be a part of the State, and behind it will be all the public resources, from the unsold lauds down to the dog tax. It will be practically proof against sudden runs. It will have no “ uncalled capital,” which can never be obtained when it is wanted, and which is a delusive security in good times and a cause of ruin in bad, inasmuch as the prospective liability dr-igs down the share quotations, and the fall in shares scares the depositors, and the frenzy of the depositors sends the shares down still lower, and this increased fall puts the gilded dome on the mania and makes the destruction final. Also, among its other advantages, the creation of a National Bank will make the note issue a State monopoly, whereby the country will obtain the use of seven million pounds as a perpetual loan without interest, and the currency, which has hitherto consisted so largely of the unsecured 1.0.U.s of such men of straw as Matthew Davies and Thomas Smith Eichardson, will be put on a safe fooling. It will secure for the Treasury a large annual income in the shape of ordinary banking profits. And it will make the country practically independent of foreign loans and loanmongers for all time, which, in itself, is a sufficient reason for its establishrneht.

MONETARY AND COMMERCIAL. London, May 29. The Antwerp wool sales will beheld on the sth to the 10th June. 13,000 bales of River Plato and 2100 bales of Australian wool have been catalogued for the series. Gold is flowing into the Bank of England. Tallow, medium mutton, 29s ; beef, 28s. Forward business in Australian wheat is active. Foreign arrivals are moderate. Five vessels are at present off coast. Two Australian cargoes have been sold at 29s 6d to 29s 9d. The cargo by the ship Dorothea from Lyttelton (January 21st) sold at 295. The American visible wheat supply is estimated at 89,126,000 bushels. Owing to the season being much earlier than usual, and to a large influx of soft fruits from the Continent, colonial fruit is bringing lower prices.