Chapter XIII.
A Banking Crisis.
In the second year of his Premiership, Mr. Seddon and his Ministry were tried as Premier and Ministry had never been tried in the colonies before.
Everything had gone well with him. There had been no hitch in his administration or his legislation. The people had said unmistakably that they desired him and no one else as their leader. He was at the head of the strongest and most united party on record. He was surrounded by clever men, upon whom he could rely for support with the utmost confidence. Adversity seemed to be turned into good fortune, and the plans of his opponents were frustrated so that their schemes helped him to gain greater popularity and become more steadily fixed in his position.
In 1894, however, it became evident that there was great trouble ahead, and that he would be called upon to meet an extraordinary crisis. Suddenly, and without any warning of the heaviness of the responsibility that was to be placed upon his shoulders, he was asked to take his reputation in his hands and face a danger that appalled even his stout heart. The Government was called upon to decide in a few hours whether it would save the Bank of New Zealand or let the institution fall and carry with it the fortunes of thousands of colonists and the financial welfare of the colony.
The first hint the public received that the bank’s affairs were not satisfactory was in October, 1889. There had been some idea abroad before that time that the bank was making heavy losses. It had advanced money on landed and other properties when the colony was enjoying its period of inflated prosperity, and when values were high. Then came the depression and the heavy drop in prices, values, businesses, and everything else; and the bank found that property after property and
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