The Waikato Times. SATURDAY, APRIL 26, 1879.

Waikato Times, Volume XIII, Issue 1067, 26 April 1879, Page 2

The Waikato Times.

SATURDAY, APRIL 26, 1879.

Equal and exact justice to all men, Of whatever state or persuasion, religious

or political. Here shall the Press the People's right

maintain, Unawed by influence and unbribed by gain.

The thirty-fifth half-yearly meeting of tbe shareholders of the Bank of New Zealand comes at a time of special interest, when the commercial world at Home and in the Colonies, is presumed to be more or less affected, by the money crisis, which ripened and matured by othor circumstances, was launched into active existence by the failure of the City of Glasgow Bank. There is an ever recurring cycle of prosperity and depression in commercial matters culminating in a crisis. Prudential and safe trading begets prosperity, prosperity begets over trading and wild speculation, and these again beget depression intensified into a crisis by the precautionary measures of the banking companies. Such a crisis aggravated by extensive widespread strikes amongst various branches of artizans has shaken society to its, very centre in the mother county, and we in the" distant colony of New Zealand have not failed to feel, to some extent, the force of the shock. Outside altogether of the regular trade of the qolony a large amount

of capital obtained through the banks, English and Colonial, was being invested in land, much of it for purely speculative purposes. First came the withholding of foreign capital, for such investments, and then the action of the banks became precautionarily restrictive. Not that, what is 1 commonly known as " putting on tbe .screw' was ruthlessly resorted to, but the brake, so to speak, was put on, and the commercial coach prevented from rushing too rapidly ahead. Money has 'been worth in the South as much as 12 per cent, per aunnm for even firstclass security, and to this we may 'attribute, perhaps, the fact that we in the North h ive felt the money tightness even so much as we have. Capitalists able to get 12 per cent on first-class mortgages in another part of the colony, very naturally left local enterprises and investments alone, and thus helped to make money locally scarcer and ,to tighten the money market in this part of the colony, which was exceptionally sound in commercial matters and little affected by the earth hunger and over speculation of the South.

Fortunately, however, the action of the Banks iu New Zealand has been preventative rather than curative, ol the speculation fever, and that it has been so tho half-yearly report of the Bank of New Zealand held in Auckland on Thursday amply shows. The pi*ofits show a total of £80,250, and after a sum of £25,000 has been carried to the reserve fund which now stands at £375,000, there is left" sufficient to pay shareholders' a dividend at the rate of 15 per cent per anuum on the paid-up capital. And this too has been done after allowing a more than ordinarily large) margin for losses and doubtful debts. A remarkable feature in the list of halfyears business is the increase of private deposits, for though the deposits as a whole have been less by neariy half a million, a fact to be accounted for by the decrease of Government balances held by the bank — private deposits, irrespective of payments on account of capital, have increased by £168,000. This speaks volumes for the steady confidence reposed in the institution by the public of New Zealand, and that though as we have said the brake was necessarily and wisely put on there has been no large element of disturbance in monetary matters in the colony. Another equally remarkable feature in the case, : and one which speaks well for the confi. dence. in New Zealand and New Zealand institutions entertained by the public at home, is the fact stated by Dr Campbell, that distrustful of bank shares as capitalists there may naturally be supposed to have beer} during the last six months, in the very height of the depression, only 1535 of the 27,500 new shares issued in England remained unallotted. That the colony will soon return to the enjoyment of a free v flow of capital into its various branches of productive industry none can doubt. New Zealand abounds too richly in resources to experience more than a temporary check from the .monetary tightness which is already beginning to show signs of relaxation. A repetition of the adverse influences of the last six months is not likely to continue, and wequito agree with the chairman of the directors of the Bank of New Zealand, when he says in the exordium of his very able speech on moving the adoption of the directors report: — "There afe manifest signs of progress in many directions, for population and settlement are rapidly increasing, and the resources of the colony are baing steadily and securely developed. Let us bave but a moderately good season, with that recovery in the value of our products which may be reasonably expected —let tho Government exercise a judicious and careful foresight in prosecuting the Public Works policy, a policy which has achieved an unpreoedenced advancement in bur material wealth by the development of our agricultural and pastoral resource?, and the Colony with that vitality and recuperative powers which have ever distinguished it, will soon recover from existing depression, and take to heart the salutary experiences we have just passed through, there is no reason why bur prosperity in the future should not be as great as it has been in the past."