"FILTHY LUCRE."

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 829, 30 May 1910, Page 4

"FILTHY LUCRE."

CONDEMNED TO FURNACE.

IN THE- BANK'S' STRONG-ROOM

' NATURE AND. DISEASE. ' Greasy, crumpled,. odoriferous, the disreputable worn-out bank-note would be held in general detestation if it did not "always prove, as- good as gold." Howr many microbes a*ro thcro on a 'dirty bank-noto which has pas?od through many, .handsY. The question has tormented tlioso well-meaning scientists who see the human race, which they love, threatened by a mil-' lion million deadly'-foes, and would fain preserve it, if they could, in an aseptic; formless atmosphere, fed upon harmless .honey dew and milk of Paradise—at least upon .milk highly sterilised. But Nature makes no provision for such elimination. of bacilli, and in our life of momentary poril it is at least comforting to know that tilers are probably hot so many microbes oil the-oldest, grimiest- poutidnoto- as on an American dollar,: bill' in its prime. For- tho -American dollar bill, being of small value, makes a rapid: pilgrimage from band to. hand, gathering moss the while, and as 1 a local scientist observed, "How many pound-notes go through my hands?" 'J.EU American doliar bill is apparently recognised as a danger. Witness this recent cablo message: "The United States Treasury here (at Washington) has installed machinery for. waching destroying germs in, and ironing '-lu.lar hiils." What becomes of the less dangerous, but still suspected, dirty dug pound note? What !s Dons in Wellington. .' America is more ingeuious than New Zealand. There is no delicato steam laundry in this country—not, apparently, in Australia dr Great Britain— where soiled bank-notes can be "done up," disinfected, and made as good as new. But all the hanks are very careful, according to assurances given to a Doiuniox representative, who made inquiries, that no bank-noto shall become so old, evil-smelling, and iniquitous as to be a menace to the public health. ' If these • assurances should seem to conflict with individual experiences, it must bo- remembered that tho banks have not complete control over notes issued. .An occasional noto may lead an'adventurous, and a'c times unsavoury, career- for years without happening to cross ■a ' bank counter. Some years ago the Health Department drew attention to the possible danger, to health of dirty banknotes, and since then, it is stated, tellers of all the banks havo had strict instructions to arrest offensive notes that may come within their clutches, and have them withdrawn from circulation. In the case of most, if not all, of the banks, the notes are sent to Wellington for that purpose. They aro elaborately cancelled and mutilated, so that if (by any chanco they should be stolen it would be impossible: to use them, and after being checked and written oil the.bank's books with .great labour, and researches, they aro filially burned. By most of the' banks they are. destroyed in Wellington, but at least one institution sends its condemned notes home to England for destruction. ~

Waiting for tha Furnace. Thousands of notes. that were awaiting the-furnace were*.shovra to the « writer---in tho strong-room of ' one of: tho. banks \on Friday, lb was 1 a very, interesting strong-room, apart' from its contents,;. It was'-a-room built within a larger room,. and the walls of .both were .about, three feet in thickness. -For —— additional /protection, tho wall- of the inner roop, which . was . still a, large chamber,, .was of a . very special construction. . It consisted of- close, rows of very, thick iron bars, a or. more bars to a .row, round which was built hard concrete. Some time ago it was found necessary to make a small hole in' this iron and concrete wall to • iustal some wiring, and two workmen spent a whole day boring a hole three inches deep. They . might very . possibly have worked faster, but that was the 'time they took. .. If they had chanced to strike one. of the iron . bars they would not have got so far,, but happily they missed these_ obstructions. On the far Bide of the inner room, within a high iron railing, was the bank's imposing line of safes, and, just.inside,tho railing was black, tin box, too large to travel, with in comfort,.. ..full of con-demned-notes,. It. was opened-for the liter's .inspection, and there, they Jay, thousands of "neatly-parcelled, beautiful, ~1. £5, £10, £20, and other notes. They were beautiful though, they had ■ , -heen.cbndemned, for tho pressman had never seen so many notes together. The bank officer lifted out a little bundle—one of many. "There are a thousand .£lO notes!" - Every note had a largo central hole in it—the bank's method of mutilation, and diagonally across each half it bore, in large black letters of indeliblo-ink, the'word "Cancelled." To all appearances some of these notes. had been very hardly judged, for-they were guit.e. respectably clean. It was explained that when notes are straightened out and shut up for a time, they somehow lose their .grimy appearance, which would be soon restored, however, if'they could go back into circulation. Burnad, and Plucked from tho Burning. • Except in cases where they are sent to England, notes that have been condemned are burned, to the number of 60,000 at one timo, in furnaces of bank premises in Wellington. High officials of tho bank are always present, and onc6 the notes have- been placed within the furnace they must not be tounhed till every particle has been consumed. A,bank whose issue in Neiv.Zealand is comparatively small condemned in oiio v year ninety thousand notes, from £1 to , £50 in face value. Notes for £50 have always a short life. There, is little use for thorn, and they are generally worn out by the continual action of the teller's thumb. The pressman was offered.the opportunity, at one bank, .of witnessing a solemn burning on the next occasion, but it seemed to him that the ceremony 'would be too mournful.

. Despite the best precautions of tho banks, however, a few of these degraded notes sometiraas escape the , burning. For example, when the Turakina put back into .Wellington with her hold..on fire three years ago, a number of cancelled notes which had beon consigned to destruction at tho headquarters of the bank in London were dumped on shore amongst the debris, and, restored by cunning fingers to virtuous' semblance, found their way into circulation. W.hen they eventually came back to the bank after passing through innocent as well as guilty hands, thoy were accepted by .the institution, which said nothing and bore the loss. "Hio same course was taken by another bank in tho case of the condemned notes stolen by a postal official who is now serving a sentence. These notes had been perforated through the centre, but the man who stole them patched them up so skilfully, with pieces cut from other notes, fraud could only be detected by a very closo inspection. Condemned notes are now mutilated and cancelled So effectually by the banks that it would take a very nrtful culprit to repeat these feats successfully.

At- the same time notes come in to all the hanks in such a damv-.cd state that a teller might not easily suspect a fraud. "We get torn notes, partly-

burned notes, rat-eaten notes, and half-notes," said a' batik official. Sometimes a man will start to light his pipe with 'a pound note before lie noticcs what it is. Sometimes a bank will pay half the face value upon half' a note, and the other precious scrap of'paper may come in weeks later. In special circumstanes a full payment may bo lnado on a half-note. • Each case is dealt with.on its merits.

An Exaggerated Danger. 1 But we have, not yet polyed tho quos- , tion as to how far dirty . bank nutes , aro a menacc. .According .to the scientist before quoted, who regretted i that his experience of bank notes was 1 nut morn extensive, the' danger is ! largely aii imaginary one. There aro no r worse'microbes on a'dirty bank noto, * lie declared, tliari would'be found ex- ' isting on the average man's -apparently- - clean lin'ger if ho rubbed- the skin suf--1 ficieiitly. Against tho attacks of hank i note and other microbes iSature has j j given us an armament in our own lite I processes, but occasionally ■it happens that our resistance faculties are redu- ' ced for some reason, and then disease - may be contracted from almost any- , thing. A dirty bank note, like an unt pleasant, but ordinarily harmless smell, , can excite a sense of disgust which may momentarily reduce vitality and cause an easy entrance to be given to pathologic organisms that 'may afterwards 1 bo encountered. Cases of illness caused r by dirty notes this authority concluded 1 to be very rare, and ho pointed out > that the danger, such as it is, would not bo .wholly obviated by the Ameri- , can system of cleaning and disinfecting . notes. A note might pass from hand to ' .hand for years without coming into the | bank's possession. In' the earlier stages of-its travels, if it was doing damage the. mischief could not be averted, and ■ later on tho microbes lying thick upon would all be dead and harmless. • When at last it-came into the bank's ' hands, it would not, improve thta note appreciably to wash it. The air we breathe, according to this informant, is quite 'as likely to do us harm as tho r -notes wo handle. •