Mr Buckley and the Bank.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume IV, Issue 478, 10 July 1890, Page 3

Mr Buckle y and the Bank.

Mr George Buckley has been writing to the New Zealand Tinies in his own defence in connection with comments made upon the course he adopted with regard to the bank’s aff.iirs. The following is the concluding paragraph of bis letter:—“Finally, sir, I have one more, word to say. We hear something about questions of ‘ taste,’ matters of ‘ honor,’ and so on ; but what of questions of honesty, robbery, and spoliation ? In Auckland the shareholders of the bank mut>t have been spoi’ed first and last of at least a million of money, so that all the accumulated profits and over half the capital of the bank have been lost. The proof lies in this: The committee wrote off the capital in October, 1888, £300,000. and Mr Hean estimates the additional loss on * globo ’ account at £.349,000—t0ta1, £649,000. I ask, is there to bs no thought for families whose capital was invested in Bank shares, and who. by this sort of thing, have been reduced to starvation from positions of comfort ? The shareholders’ committee—which included one of ths ablest Judges who ever adorned the Bench in New Zealand—recommended ‘ more specific action ’ as regards some of the principal of those who had dipped thrir hands up to the shoulders in the bank’s till whilst holding positions on the Board of Directors. Why has not this ‘ more specific action ’ been taken ? Is it because some of the parties involved hold such high positions that they are unapproachable by the ordinary legal processes? I venture to say that whan the full and true history of the Bank of New Zealand comes to be written, or unfolded in our Courts, things will be revealed which will literacy make ‘ the hair stand on end,’ and that it will be found the very worst pages in the record of the City of Glasgow Bank failure have had their counterpart in the actions of certain persons who were connected with the Bank of New Zealand.”