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 To the Right Honourable the Premier and Members of the Cabinet. GENTLEMEN,—

We, the undersigned, hereby place before you our opinion respecting the legislation dealing with the Bank of New Zealand, and beg to inform you that we will endeavour to have these views embodied in legislation:—


 * (1.) That, as State control has proved such a success, the State should not cease its control, and should continue to be represented on the Board of Directors in the same proportion as before.


 * (2.) That as the Bank has received, and is still receiving, material assistance from the State, besides enjoying a monopoly of State and local government business, we consider that the State should share in the profits in return for the monopoly of public business.


 * (3.) That the bank should not be placed in a position to terminate its connection with the State.

A reply was received as follows:—

Prime Minister’s Office, Wellington, October 15th, 1903. SIR,—I have the honour to acknowledge receipt of the letter signed by yourself and 28 other members of Parliament addressed to members of the Cabinet, and dated September 28th, intimating your opinions in respect to legislation dealing with the Bank of New Zealand. In reply I have to say that the matter is at present receiving the consideration of the Government. I beg to point out that the suggestions made are on the lines which, in several speeches delivered by me prior to the session, I submitted as being reasonable. I have the honour to be Your obedient servant, R. J. SEDDON.

Mr. Seddon was never opposed to the principle of a State-bank. As a private member he frequently spoke in support of the proposal. He knew exactly what it meant and what it involved, and he always believed that it was something more than a fad. In 1889, when he was emerging from his parochial days, he felt that there was “something in it.” It always seemed to him, he said once, that there was a good deal more in it than members seemed to think. He believed then, five years before he was called upon to virtually establish a State-bank, that the colony was drifting in that direction, owing to the Government converting its trust funds into “trading funds.” He thought that the State might issue debentures bearing a certain interest,