One unpleasant fact of the situation is that while the calls on shareholders already made are overdue to the extent of £386,000, next year the large amount of £845,000 will be due from them, and it can hardly happen but that the attempt to enforce this payment must largely increase the number of defaulters. On the other hand the reconstructed banks have reduced their tied-up liabilities, apart from permanent stocks by over £22,000,000. The City of Melbourne Bank, as you all know, has gone into liquidation. Last year my predecessor commented somewhat adversely on the fact of the Bank of New Zealand having become a semi-state bank, which may be emphasised by the action of the New Zealand Government in voting a guarantee of £5,000,000 to the Bank of New Zealand early in September.

"This has restored confidence by practically taking over the entire property of the Bank," according to the Standard, 14th October, leaving the shareholders but a very small interest in its affairs."

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As this relief of the Bank adds very seriously to the already heavy liabilities of the New Zealand Government, it may well "give us pause," especially when we remember that more than half the shares are held in England, and the Bank holds upwards of a million and a-half of English deposits.

This principle of State banking seems now to have been pushed still further and to have extended to the Colony of Queensland, where the government has assumed the control of the note issue. That matters have by no means reached their final form is shown by the assembling of an influential banking conference at Sydney, which has made recommendations relating to the four following subjects, viz.: (1) A provision against the abuse of the word "bank." In this I am sure we shall give them our hearty sympathy. (2) The form of the quarterly returns; (3) The note issue, which it is proposed shall be controlled by special commissioners; and (4) Audit, as to which last, however, the conference "is not prepared to recommend any material departure from the existing modes of audit." How far these recommendations will eventually, by the co-operation of all the Australian colonies, be embodied in legislation, remains yet to be seen, but we must hope that effectual steps will shortly be taken to place banking in Australasia on a thoroughly sound basis and also on one specially fitted to the needs of the country.

Having now touched lightly upon some of the current subjects of interest to the banking community, I can only reiterate the hope and belief that with the brightening prospects of legitimate trade, this country may be now entering upon a new period of increasing prosperity, in which we shall, as bankers, no doubt have our share.

Mr. J. B. MARTIN: In the unexpected absence of a highlyvalued member of the Council, I have been asked at the last moment to propose to you to pass a cordial vote of thanks to our new President for the address to which we have listened with much interest. Those of us who have been associated with your Council— and I myself have been so associated during the fifteen years of its lifemust be well aware of the service which Mr. Dudley Ryder has rendered to the Council; we have felt pleasure in welcoming him as Chairman of our Council, and now I feel sure you are all pleased to see him succeed to the Presidency. It is not only for his personal qualities that we welcome Mr. Dudley Ryder, but because he is associated with a firm whose name stands for everything that is sound and solid in the banking history of London. It is one of those few banks which is now strictly a London bank. We Lombard Street bankers are getting to be country bankers and we must now turn to the West End to find the old-fashioned type. As your Treasurer I have listened with much interest to the statement as to the growth of membership of this Institute. I trust that growth will continue; not that we are a moneymaking concern and look at an increase of membership as an increase of so many guineas per annum, but simply because an increase in our membership will allow us to offer greater facilities for the education of rising generations of bankers, and for the promotion of the banking interest all round. Mr. Dudley Ryder has told you of the course of lectures which is in contemplation, and if they are as successful as those at Manchester last year and Liverpool I know never likes to be behind Manchester-I am sure they will again redound to the credit of this Institute. These lectures are of an educational nature, and Mr. Dudley Ryder has laid some weight upon the importance of a commercial education. I quite agree with him that in order to face foreign competition, we must have a sound and thorough commercial education in all ranks of the banking and commercial fraternity in England. At the same time if it is not heretical to say so as a banker addressing bankers, I do not think a commercial education is everything. I yield to none in the appreciation which I have of the services which Professor James has rendered to the cause of commercial education in America. He has said much, written much, and done much. But it has been pointed out to me, especially by Americans, that if they have a fault it is that they begin commercial education and a business life so early, that when a man goes into business he thinks of business solely by day and night, and when he has made his pile he cannot rest because he does not know when it is big enough. He cannot leave business because he has no other interests. May I digress a moment in order to give an instance the late Doctor Schliemann. He started in life with, or was it without, the conventional half-crown. He made his pile by commercial ability, and having satisfied himself that he had enough, he devoted himself to study and exploration, which have left him a greater name than if

he had died worth five or six millions sterling. I may turn to our own ranks, and cite the name of our first President, Sir John Lubbock. I do not think that if he had been nothing but a banker, he would have enjoyed the reputation he does. You will see by The Times of to-day that a firm of publishers has just completed the publication of the hundred books which Sir John Lubbock has thought best worth reading. That is a tribute to the universality of his study, and I commend to your consideration and that of those who are beginning life, that money making is not everything, and that education never leaves off. It is only a method of enlarging the mind for taking in further information on all subjects. With regard to the gratuitous services which Mr. Dudley Ryder points out as being laid on bankers, of their variety we must be very sensible. The question as to what the exact responsibilities of bankers in respect of these gratuitous services may be, has been called to our notice very prominently of late, and has given rise to speculations and searching of heart among bankers. What solution these questions may find I cannot say. No doubt that beyond the ordinary transactions of a banker, he renders extra and undefined services. Some of us can show you old ledgers in which a customer initialled his account in token that he admitted it as correct, and the making up of the pass book, a duplicate of the account, was a service for which the customer gave the clerk a gratuity; it was recognised as an extra; but obviously it is now held to be a part of the account. Mr. Dudley Ryder thinks that possibly some day we shall find a compensation in the declining rate of interest for the use of money by making a charge for such services, and when the condition of banking so adjusts itself, we shall, I hope, do so to the mutual satisfaction of the banker and the customer. Now with regard to the rapidly declining rates which money commands, it is perfectly true they are from a banker's point of view deplorable; but such things have been before; money has been almost unmarketable. The price of good securities has been very high. I believe I am speaking in accordance with fact when I say that early in the eighteenth century, somewhere about 1714, the Dutch Government issued and maintained at par a Government Loan at the rate of 1 per cent. interest. There have been strange vicissitudes since then. Money has been at high rates. I have a transfer of stock of British 3 per cent. Consols at 48g on 21st November, 1797. I am not therefore without hope that something may happen which may bring back a demand for money at a fairly remunerative rate. I should greatly deprecate the outbreak of a European or world-wide war to raise the rate of money by the destruction of capital; but I fear that is more probable than an universal disarmament, which would make us willing to put our money into railways and so forth in every part of the world, and so raise the value of money. But although a permament rate on first-class securities is diminishing, I do not think that banking operations are likely to vanish away to a point at which

there will be no remuneration on monetary operations; but even if it comes to the point predicted by Professor Foxwell, and if our customers pay us a rate for taking care of their money, I do hope that the next generation of bankers, if it is to be the next generation, will have sufficient ability to know how to get the turn of the market; that when they make loans they will still make a little turn between the premium which they will allow to borrowers, and that which they will obtain from depositors. The accumulation of gold is of course a very important problem just at present, but I would not say a word verging on the subject of bimetallism; upon this our President has also been very cautious. The large amount of gold output, which is increasing now by leaps and bounds, ought to induce us to study from a new point of view the changes which have led to the fall in the price of commodities generally. Some such study I hope we shall have laid before us in the paper which Mr. Dudley Ryder has scheduled as likely to be contributed to this Institute by Mr. Hansard. I feel that among the many topics which our President's address suggests, I may not presume to speak of more. I only conclude, as I began, by asking you to accord a hearty vote of thanks to Mr. Dudley Ryder, not only for the address to which we have listened with much interest, but also for being here to-night as our new President. I am sure you will all agree with me in hoping that when the time comes, he will lay down his office with as much satisfaction to himself, as we feel satisfaction to-night in welcoming him to the occupancy of the chair.

Mr. JOHN DUN: I have been asked to second the motion which has been so effectively proposed by my friend Mr. Martin. I cannot do better than endorse all that he has said in eulogy of the past services of our President to this Institute of the Council of which he has been a member, I suppose from the very first, and also the service which he has rendered us to-night in taking the Chair, and in giving us such an admirable survey not only of the affairs of the Institute but also of much in the surrounding economical and banking world which is of the deepest interest to us all. I will not venture to go into any detail, but I will simply say this with reference to what Mr. Ryder said as to the possibility of the glut of gold causing a diminution in the rate of interest and the rise in all prices so that we might possibly see Consols at 125, that I should like, at my first leisure, to turn back to the course of prices of securities after the glut of gold which we had succeeding the discoveries of gold in Australia and California, and to see what the progress of prices was then. I do not profess to remember, but my impression is that the progress of prices then was not altogether in the direction indicated by Mr. Ryder, and I think it will be interesting for us all to test by the actual facts of 1852 to 1857, the speculative prognostications with which our President has this evening favoured us. I have much pleasure in seconding the motion.

The PRESIDENT (Hon. H. D. Ryder) in reply: I have to thank you with all my heart for the too kind expressions which Mr. Martin and my friend Mr. Dun have used with respect to myself; and if there has been any question of gratitude in the matter it should be my gratitude to the Council for their treatment of myself during the time I have been associated with them, and the great advantages which I have enjoyed by being concerned with them in discussing the interesting topics which come before us as bankers, and which I have found most valuable to myself. I must also acknowledge with appreciation the kindly remarks made with respect to my firm with which I am very proud to be connected, and I hope the position which you attribute to it and which has been held by it for two centuries or more may continue in succeeding ages. Mr. Dun alluded to the question of the depreciation of gilt-edged securities, and I think we should do well to ask Mr. Hansard, who is going to give us a lecture on the subject, to turn his attention to that particular point. But certainly it may be found that the experience of 1851 was different to anything which I have indicated to-night as likely to occur. I would only add that the cordial way in which the whole of this meeting has received me tonight, will be an encouragement to me during the time which I may be permitted to act as President of this Institute.