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Tasmania, and Town Boards and Road Boards in New Zealand, have been included with municipalities :—

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For the amounts that have just been given the local bodies are responsible directly to their creditors in part, and the general governments hold themselves directly liable for the balance. In the following table is given a division of the indebtedness of local bodies into the sum due to the state and that due to the public. It may be mentioned that the amount owing to the state is included with the general debt of the state; and in order to estimate the total state and municipal indebtedness the figures in the second column only have to be added to the figures given later on under State Finance.

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STATE AND MUNICIPAL RATES AND LAND VALUES.

The extent of the charges on land levied by the various corporations and other local bodies as rates will have been gathered from the

foregoing pages; in addition thereto a land tax is levied by the General Government in all the states except Queensland and Western Australia, and the income tax imposed by Victoria, South Australia, and Tasmania, includes income derived from land and its use; in New South Wales, however, incomes derived from the use and occupancy of land are untaxed. The following table shows the collections for rates and the other taxes mentioned, and also the capital values of property and of land and improvements, with the amount per £ on the value of unimproved land and land and improvements which the rates would equal:

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The amount of rates collected in Western Australia is only approxi mate, as the returns are incomplete.

ACCUMULATION.

THE

BANKING.

HE laws relating to banks and banking at present in force are susceptible of great improvement, and in 1893 the failure of many monetary institutions which posed as banks directed attention to the urgent necessity for entirely revising the conditions under which deposits might be taken from the general public, but so far no new legislation has been enacted. All institutions transacting the business of banking are required by law to furnish, in a specified form, quarterly statements of their assets and liabilities, and from these statements and the periodic balance-sheets the tables in this chapter have been compiled. The returns furnished by the banks, though in compliance with the laws of the states, are by no means satisfactory, being quite unsuited to the modern methods of transacting banking business, and they cannot be accepted without question as indicating the stability or instability of the institutions by which they are issued. As a rule, nothing can be elicited beyond what is shown in the half-yearly or yearly balancesheets. No uniformity is observed as regards the dates of closing the accounts, and the modes of presentation are equally diverse. Important items which should be specifically stated are included with others of minor import, and, in some cases, current accounts are blended with other accounts instead of being separately shown. The value of the information vouchsafed to the public is illustrated by the fact that it was impossible to obtain from the publications of several institutions suspending payment in 1893 the amount of their liabilities either to the public or the state, and these particulars were never disclosed.

CAPITAL RESOURCES OF BANKS.

According to the latest information published, the paid-up capital of the twenty-two banks operating in Australasia is £19,344,119, of which £5,318,629, inclusive of £2,000,000 guaranteed to the Bank of New Zealand by the Government of that colony, has a preferential claim on the profits of the companies. Below will be found a statement of the ordinary and preferential capital of each bank at the date shown, with the amount of the reserve fund of the institution. In the case of several companies which were reconstructed, there are reserves which

are held in suspense pending realisation of assets, and of these no account has been taken in the table ::

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* Includes £220,830, Profit and Loss Special Account. † Includes £100,000 at Contingency Account. Includes Capital Reserve Account.

During the half-year ended 31st December, 1902, a reduction in the capital of the Commercial Bank of Australia, Limited, took place, resulting in the writing off of £5 10s. per share of the ordinary capital.

The preceding table shows the position of the capital account at date of balancing; but a number of the banks had made calls on their shareholders which will increase their paid-up capital. The amount of these calls and the total working capital that will be available when they are met are appended :—

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* Includes £8,190 prepaid on account of Reserve Liability.

The paid up capital of the banking companies now operating in Australasia has increased from £14,724,587 before the crisis to £19,344,119, or by £4,619,532. In 1893, however, there were in existence two banks, with a combined capital of £900,000, which are now defunct; and it should also be mentioned that capital to the amount of £7,314,205 has been written off during the last ten years, including £500,000, the value of shares of the Bank of New Zealand issued to the Crown, and re-purchased, and £1,071,520, being £5 10s. per share of the ordinary capital of the Commercial Bank of Australia, Limited.

LIABILITIES AND ASSETS OF BANKS.

The liabilities of the banks enumerated, at the dates which have been previously given, totalled £141,551,199, against which amount

250,000

250,000

152,040

152,040

413,146

2,102

415,248

150,000

150,000

457,354

457,354

1,500,000

1,500,000

100,000

100,000

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