WELLINGTON NOTES.

Waikato Argus, Volume III, Issue 223, 16 December 1897, Page 1 (Supplement)

WELLINGTON NOTES.

♦ -■ [from oub own ooeebspondbntl. WBLtiNQTON, December 3. THE BANK OF NEW ZEALAND BILL. This long looked for Bill is hardly likely to pass through the furnace of. criticism without being singed. It is designed to repair some of the blunders made in th« heroic deed performed by the Liberal Government of Mr Seddon in " saving the bank." There are many people, who understand something of mercantile affairs who have not yet realised what or who was saved in the legislation which took pUce in 1894. The shareholders are unanimous in declaring that they were ruined in place of being saved. The depositors never ran any risk and wanted no saving ; the people who owed the bank money could have found themselves with the choice of either paying what they owed or of finding some one else willing to take their debts over. . The only possible gainers, as was pointed out at the time, were the hopelessly bankrupt, who might be able through political or back door influences to carry on, and the Colonial Bank which .had cleverly disguised its real position. These possible gainers were checkmated by the intuitive, grasp a few nien of business like Mr John Duthie, Mr H. D. Bell and other trained men possessed. If they failed to check the generosity "of Premier Seddon and Treasurer Ward in saving the Bank in 1894, they, at least, prevented the saving of the Colonial Bank and its twin brother, the Ward Association in 1895.

Now we have a Bill for. Parliament to wrestle with to save the bank from itself. It provides, among many, other things for cutting off its own. head—in other words for abolishing the office--'of President, and giving him a year's salary as compensation for loss of office. But Mr Watson was appointed by Colonial Treasurer Ward to the office on October 12th, 1894, " during good behaviour and efficiency " for a period of ten years, and on September 18th, 1895, the directors, by formal deed, ratified the appointment at the salary of £2250 per annum. Mr Watson has, therefore,seven years' mortgage over that handsome income,, providing he has complied with the good behaviour and efficiency part of this double-barrelled bargain. If he has.been well behaved and efficient, there, can be do excuse for his abolition ; if he has not complied with the terms, then it. is only just and proper that Parliament should say—" Go hence." And around this provision of the Bill there is every prospect of a wordy war with Mr Ward as a champion for the Bank Inspector, who helped him in the past, and Mr George Hutchison, who has a lot of old scores to wipe off on the other side. In sport* ing circles, the,odds are offered that if Watson gets the chance he will take one year's salary and smile. Then a further handicap is to be put on the State Bank by having nine directors, five of whom ars to be Government nominees, three of them North Island men and two South Islanders. A (•ambling friend said to-day he would lay level money he could name the two Southerners in one pick—Lee Smith and J. G. Ward. There were no, takers. The chairman of directors is to' be paid £IOOO, and the others £350 and £SOO and travelling expenses. Seeing that the Bank has two inspectors and managers or agents in every district it looks to a non-banking mind as if the presence of a director in a district would be apt to clash with the responsible officers, bat as the Kill has a political bearing about it in the way of providing fat sinecures for friends, it is evident that it will be one of the features of the coming debate that the Seddon and Ward combination will vote for more billets and the Opposition will fight tooth and nail against the needless extravagance. Curiously enough, there is a split ii the party over this part of the Bill. Not of the party in Parliament, but of the outside ring, which owns and runs what was known until lately as the " Premier's paper," but which he only occasionally dictates articles for now and the Minister for Bushy Park, never. The Ministerial morning journal is now entirely devoted to Bank and beer, and w hen the two elements as personified in the President, Mr Watson, and the most active of the directorate, Mr M. Kennedy, our Privy Councillor has totake a back seat. This disloyal organ undertook this morning to show that Mr Seddon's proposals in his Bill were contrary to the best interests of the Bank, and the subject was handled in such an exceptionally masterly style that people who had noticed that President Watson had made several calls during the previous day at the newspaper office, drew inferences as to the authorship of the leading article. But there are always censorious people, and Mr Watson's visits may have been necessary for other reasons altogether. Still it is a healthy sign when the Premier's paper denounces the Premier's Bill, for it is a proof that the solidarity of the Liberal party is being replaced by candid criticium. In well-informed circles it is understood that Mr Seddon's shares in the paper are on the market at a shade below latest curreut rales. The Bill does not confine its intentions to the Bank of New Zealand entirely. It also provides that every bank trading in ; the colony shall keep assets equal to its

liabilities. This is a very progressive step. The three Australian hanks, all sound beyond question, may want from time to time to invest as much as possible in Australia, and when money is a drug here it is better to let it go to where it will be of use instead of eating its head off here. But Mr Seddon desires to make it illegal for any money to be sent away even if we have no use for It. He perhaps has a hazy idea that the colony will be the richer for a million or two of sovereigns being stowed away in strong rooms. A good many amateur financiers labour under the same delusion, and cannot realise that it is the constant circulation of money that creates wealth, and that 100 sovereigns laid aside for a year is but a 100 sovereigns at the end of the term, but if exchanged every day there is something added to every new holder of them. Besides the existence of such a law would compel banks to refuse money because every lodgment by a customer would compel an increase of assets, generally of a dead or unproductive character to comply with the clause. To carry Mr Sedden’s motion of banking to its logical conclusion, every branch and agency of every bank should have in itself assets equal to the sum of its total liabilities, and then every one of them would put up their shutters in a week. THE PUBLIC TRUST OFFICE. One of the most interesting papers laid on the table this session is the re£ort of the Public Trustee, Mr J. C. fartin. It is so common sense and devoid of the usual stilted language of officialdom that one feels that the circumlocution office has no connection with this Department. The Public Trustee states that a clerk is in charge of, and responsible for, each Department —wills, lunacies, intestates, native affairs, and so on, and that “ the system of bookkeeping is so simple that any lad of ordinary intelligence and education should have no difficulty in picking it up. It is eminently suitable for the peculiar business of the office, and enables each branch to act as its own ledgerkeeper, thus saving the expense of a Staff of bookkeepers pure and simple.” What strikes one here is that Mr Martin should be put into the Treasury at once, and teach that staff some of the simplicity of the office he presides over. The admission will be fatal to the redtapeiets if it spreads, and Mr Martin himself is the man of so practical and downright a character that his opinions always carry weight. He strongly objects to having unprofitable accounts passed over to him to keep by Government on the ground that the cost of clerks, etc., really falls on the private estates administered by the office. He Is able to show that in spite of the fall in the rate of interest the office has managed, so far, not to reduce the rate paid to its constituents, and that the_ accounts show a steady increase both in profits and business, all of which is unexpectedly^heerfulj’ei^^