PROPOSED STATE BANK

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10063, 8 June 1910, Page 5

PROPOSED STATE BANK

SPEECH BY MR A. W. HOGG. , The Now Zealand State Currency Association iield a meeting in Godbsi'd rooms, Wellington, on Monday over:intT- Wr F. T. Moore presided, and twenty-six people were present, •'jncludifg li!:!f-?i-drzen women and Mr A. W. Huep, MP. M- Hogg, who is patron-of the Associalioi', said (tat when he left the Ministry l,e was clad to snake a shc rifioe which had started so h-ilpfu and valuable a movermnt as that which aimed at the establishment in this country of a State Bank. Of cours?, such a movement w"iuld by opDOseJ by the wealthy, and by those who were interested in the present financial system New Zealand prided herself on be> rter in advance of tie world. She had much splendid legislation, but of late years the administration had been a failure. Continuing, he said that labour was not going to be trampled under foot. He had never been under an obligation to a bank, but he was endeavouring to relieve the people from the thraldom under which they suffered. He hud nothing to say against the banks. They were well managed—particularly for their shareholders. In asking for a State currency they wsre simply atking the State, to do its duty At the 'present time the State did a good deal of banking business. Miliums were lodged in the Post Office Savings Bank. The Government had established a huge lending institution—a thing he had advocated for years. Why should they not go a step further, and establish a State Bank at once? Why were they afraid of bondholders in London? At thd present time the State had a very large interest in the Bank of New Zealand. The Government of the country had the appointment of !he bullc of the directors in its hun's, and he declared it was the | fault of the men in the Cabinet that I that institution was not changed into la Stgte bank. (Hear, hear), 'lhe I original shareholders were getting

tli3 skim milk. He went on to refer to the operations of the Advances t > Settler.-;' Office, and said that it WH9 in as bad a p atate to-day as it was last year, when the financial stringency occurred. The Advances to Settlers Office waa a helpless cripple—a great many people were unaware of this. Farmers were never in a worse

position than they were to-day. Utfor innately, a great many of them had contracted big obligations. The Government in this country wis afraid of the wealthy classes. For many of the financial ills of the day he prescribed a State currency. A paper currency, he said, was even better than a gold currency.