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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 82

A State Bane of Issue

A State Bane of Issue.

The proposal is not a new one. One year before Otago was founded the Legislative Council of the colony passed an Ordinance (16th October, 1847) of which the following is the title—" An Ordinance to Authorise the Establishment of a Colonial Bank of Issue by the Government of New Zealand, to Make and Issue a Paper Currency, and to Prohibit the Making and Issuing of Paper Money by Pri- page 15 vate Individuals." By this time a foreign bank or two had gained a footing in the colony, and their influence had prevented the law referred to being carried into execution. It, however, remained the law for thirty years, and was only repealed in 1878 by a general repeal Act which purged the statute book of several hundred Acts which had fallen into disuetude. It has been a reproach to our leading men—I can scarcely call them statesmen—that they themselves have been too much under the powerful sway of our monetary institutions to work out any amendments beneficial to the public. The bitterest debate I ever listened to in Parliament was that in which a Minister, in language more vigorous than polite, was asserted to be more subservient to the interest of a leading bank than to the interest of the community. It is not surprising that the Paper Currency Act was allowed to remain a dead letter. As a rule the mass of the people has been so well off as to be regardless of reforms of any kind, but now, when the pinching of adversity is felt, its teachings will receive more attention, and we may expect our common rights will be more closely scrutinised and looked after.