THE CURRENCY QUESTION.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10141, 19 January 1911, Page 5

THE CURRENCY QUESTION.

•' -:- V 'MR "BORROWING AND BRAG." in 'his address in Masterton last night, Mr Hogg stated that finance might be a complicated 'question. He did not profess to, be a financier oxpert, a conjurer, a juggler, or a pawnbroker; but he would ask this question—Why should they allow the paper currency of the country to be issued, controlled, increased or restricted by banking corporations? Why should it be left for the fire banks trading in New Zealand to restrict and regulate the note issue of tnis.couutry. There was far more in this currency question than many ■ people imagined. The power it enabled the banker a to exercise over the trade and commerce of the Dominion was overwhelming. They could cripple trade, crush enterprise, create ■• depression whenevei' ; they liked. Yet ■ the' Government asked' them to look - on arid allow the tyranny of capital free scope 1 Last year's bank divi- * . dends were as follows:—Bank of New ; y •'.;. ; .■ Zealand, 10 per cent, and 2J per ceriti ~ bonus- Union bank, 10 per cent, arid 4 per cent, bom;*; Bank of N.S.W\, Ittf per cent.; Bank of Australasia, 12 per cent, and 2 per cent, bonus; Natiorial Bank, 10 per cent, and 3 per cent, bonus. The amount paid in dividends and bonuses during 1909 was £518,250, - and besides this a large sura was added to the reserve funds. To a Labour party and a Labour Government; and especially the Hon. Andrew Fisher. ' belonged the credit of establishing; a Cominonwealth currency in Australia. They were destined to have it in New Zealand, for the country would not always be ruled by stick-in-the-muds with a policy consisting of borrowing* and brag. Members of the House, like Messrs Laurenson, McLaren, Hogan,: Oraigie, T. E. Taylor, Davy, rjVitty,Ell/ and others, withwhom he >' : '\" was;-pfojfld';to.be associated, and mem- ; - r - tfjeirs" of-/tne*"Counell": like '". ~ .tlie;'. "*' J'; John Rigg, Thos.-Kellyi George Jdnes, Jenkinson and others, would, riot jet the matter rest until they had a national currency and the commerce of the people iviis rescued from the thraldom of the -oreign investor. No scaly blight or iroolly aphis or codlin moth ever preyed with more tenacity qri a fruit tree than tlie big financial institutions on the people of New Zealarid. In the cities they erected palatial structures of stone and concrete and polished marble, with beautiful statuary overhead. But the lions and unicorns and antediluvian monsters re-: presented were never more voracious : when alive than our banks and insurance offices and pet monopolies when they wanted money to export to their shareholders and clients across the seas. Every fresh loan was another rope round our necks, another yoke for our shoulders, or fresh bits.of harness to keep us in the clutches of the moneylender. Although we were manufacturing capital every day, our /policy was to borrow, : _lv>rrow, borrow, . ' eternally borrow,^-and the in T ";" . : terest arid sinking fund Ave" arc seniU - ang periodically abroa'dT '". *" ; ;.'.'',;. ; ,