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Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XV, Issue 4431, 30 May 1893, Page 2

A conference of Premiers has tried to arrange the future relations ot Australian States and Australian Banks. A medical consultation is the correct thing when a man iB sick, but it does not follow tfiat the.^reaoription ordered, when the patient is in a precarious cohditio'p,' will- bo adopted when he turns the cornerj''fh'e Premiers find that it is expedient for the State to guarantee banknotes, and or the binks to lodge certain eeouri-

ties for the same with tbe Stole and for the Government to poke its nose into bank ledgers. No doubt banks will submit to this treatment in ihoir present condition, though it is very much like the man in tbe m;id being helped by the man iu iho mire. Both Stales and Banks know that they bave been sinners and that the real remedy is to forawear sack, and live cleanly, What we want is honesty fiom botb, and this is the last course to be proffered, We see a bank declare a huge dividend when the value'of its shares has shrunk to one lulf of their normal rate, This is not tbe way to restore confidenca in monetary institutions, and to rehabilitate credit in 'the London market, tbe vulnerablo point which no Court plainter froca Colonial premiers can patch. Things ar« righting themselves, and we may hope that for some time to come bauki; won't want guarantees from Colonial Treasurers, and Colonial Treasurer!! won't need guarantees from Banks. All that is needed is honest fiimncing on the part of the State and prudent trading on the part of tbe bunks. With there all will go well, without theurthere will, sooner or later, be tbe inevitable crisis and its concomitant troubles,