THE Temuka Leader. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1894. BANK AMALGAMATION.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2713, 18 September 1894, Page 2

THE Temuka Leader. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1894. BANK AMALGAMATION.

The Colonial Bank, seeing the Bank of New Zealand safely ensconsed under the sheltering protection of the wing of the State, has lost no time in lifting the same segis to save itself from impending danger. What a commentory on the impudent protests of the very class who own these institutions, against State interference? Every measure which has had for its object the protection of working men, has been denounced by these very people as interference with the liberty of the subject, “ molly-coddling,” grandmotherly legislation, and so on, but no' sooner did they find themselves floundering in the financial quicksands created by their own greed and avarice, than they rushed to the State and implore it to “ molly-coddle ” themselves. Will these people ever realise that what is sauce for the goose, must be sauce for the gander ? Do they think that they must have every attention while others must be ignored ? We believe they do, and that they will come up very shortly denouncing as arrogantly as ever State interference iu the private.'affairs of men. The man who ten years' ago suggested to borrow £2,0000,00] to buy the Bank of New Zealand was regarded as a harmless idiot, but since then we have borrowed nearly £5,000,000, and it is all gone, and we have now guaranteed £2,000,000 to keep thatjinstitution from crumbling to dust. Artemus Ward used to say that there is more harm done in this world by fools than by rogues. Who can say that this is not true ? Let us see how we have been fooled. Wo have borrowed about £40,000,000, almost all df which passed through the ißauk of New Zealand. When this money was'lying in heaps iu the coffers of the bank it helped its friends to buy up the lands of the colony, leaving the present geueration practically landless. Now we must buy back at an enormous premium that land which was originally purchased with our own borrowed'money, and they have the unspeakabe impudence to call it confiscation. But this is not all. We must also guarantee the debentures of this frightful financial malstrom. When men suffered under the iron heel of tyrannical Kings they believed that if they got freedom to make their own laws their happiness would be assured, but here we are, the freest people beneath the canopy of Heaven, hoodwinked, defrauded, and swindled with our full and explicit consent. How is this ? Simply because we are, as Carlyle says, a nation of fools. And have the managers af the Bank of New Zealand shown that they possessed more wisdom than the people? No. They have shown themselves the biggest fools of all. Notwithstanding their opportunities they narrowly escaped insolvency. Bight or nine years ago they had a capital of £1,000,000, a reserve fund of £625,000, and paid a dividend of 15 per cent, with a bonus of 6 per cent, sometimes thrown in. In the reconstruction schemes rendered necessary by their greed for large dividends, they wrote down their capital by £475,000, and also appropriated their reserve fund of £625,000. Thus they lost every penny of their original capital. They started again with £525,000 old capital, and £375,000 new capital, making in all £900,000, but the Colonial Bank before accepting them as partners now insists on this being written down by another £300,000. In the whole history of finance perhaps there is not a record to beat this. Yet this is the bank which ten years ago was said to be able to buy the whole colony many times over. As regards the Colonial Bank, it has a better right to State protection than the Bank of New , Zealand. All its shareholders live iii the colony : it is essentially a New Z® a l an d institution; and its business has hitherto been managed carefully and successfully. But we object to the colony’s credit being pledged wholesale in this way to prevent the property of wealthy men depreciating in value, unless the State is compensated in some respect for its protection. To say that the Bank of New Zealand is a State Bank is absolutely untrue, only—a mere subtprfuge designed to hoodwink the advocate qt » Bank. __ It is true that the State is r.espopsMe JP ore than tffO-tbirds its capital, out will go into the pockets of th,e shareholders. What the Government ought to do now is to seize the gloho estates and transfer them to the Crown in consideration of the £2,000,000 of money guaranteed, Jyet the Government take over the debentures and convert them into 3J per cents, and giye the £3,000,090 to the bank for the estates. Then shall know what we are doing; but at present all wa know is that we run the risk of having to pay the £2,000,000, without getting one half penny of direct from it, It is al vary well to sav that the worst comes to the worst, wo can seize the v * aQ b, and conduct it as a State Bank. What a b^ r « al f bo then ? What a pleasant job j OT a Colonial Treasurer to be washing up its dirty work of years. Wo have no objection to give the protection of tho State to the Colonial Bank, but we think the colony ought to get some quid quo, but that apparently we shall not get. We must content ourselves with all the risk, while the sharoholhers pocket the profits.