THE NATIONAL BANK OF NEW ZEALAND.

Westport Times, Volume VI, Issue 1018, 1 November 1872, Page 3

THE NATIONAL BANK OF NEW ZEALAND.

Our telegraphic news from Europe states that a National Bank of New Zealand is announced in London. Referring to the project, an Auckland contemporary says:—A report had been in circulation for some time past in the Southern Provinces of New

Zealand that a new bank was about to be established. Ifc was generally understood that the capital was to be subscribed in the colony, and in fact the institution was to be purely a local one, with its board of directors sitting either in Auckland or Dunedin. From the fact of the new enterprise being announced on the London Stock Exchange, we conclude that the great bulk of the proposed capital —if not the whole of it—is to be subscribed in London, and that consequently there will be a heavy drain of interest annually from New Zealand. This will generally be looked upon as an evil, for it is a notorious fact that at the present time all the banks in this colony are overflowing with capital awaiting safe and profitable investment, and that the difficulty lies rather in finding good investments than in providing the capital for them. The Bank of Otago has had a chequred career, and no doubt the shareholders will be glad to be " absorbed," for any change to them must be an improvement. The announcement made in London has, however, had one good effect, it has induced the proprietors of the Union Bank to sanction the registration of shares in the colonies, so that the number of colonial shareholders is likely to be increased considerably.