Page 4 Advertisements Column 1

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1713, 30 January 1874, Page 4

BANK CLERKS IN VIOTORIA; ' ♦ r- i The Melbourne . Daily Telegraph remarks ;— "The Union Bank defalcations have drawn attention once more to the payment of bank clerks and their positioh in the social world. As regards the ratejs ostensibly paid to bank employ is, they were officially returned last year to the Government as followd ;- ■: ■ , Per annum, Chief or General Manager £1700 to £3500 Assistant Manager and Manager ... ... 800 to 2000 Accountant 400 to 700 Tellers 250 to 450 Ledger Keepers 150 to 400 Ordinary Clerks ... ... 150 to 300 Junior Clerks... 50 to 150 We do not know that hostile criticism would hold water if this list were adhered to. In that case it could scarcely bo said with truth that bank clerks were ill-paid, or that their remuneration compared tin-, favourably with the rates of other mercantile establishments. Nor. does tlie list show any unfair division of remuneration. A good deal of stress is usually laid upon the amount of money that goes through a teller's hand, but the trust is more seeming than real. The teller does, or should, account each day for the money he received at the beginning. His work is that of handling counters, and though smartness is required to prevent vexatious errors, yet there is little real responsibility in the work compared with that of managers, who may never handle a coin, but who coold make collusive bargains, and pick the pockets of the shareholders a thousand different ways. Even where the robbery consists in the actual abstraction of funds, banks seldom suffer by their tellers, the mechanical check on these simple duties being so easy and complete. Tellers who handle immense sums daily would not, we apprehend, be illpaid, or disproportionately paid, were the official ratesadhered to • but the desire to cut down the expenses is probably making that list more nominal than real. There is a constant temptation to bank managers to employ juniors, who are, indeed, absolutely thrust upon them by a desire to get the foot upon the bottom rungs of the ladder. Lads of sixteen are seen gravely perched on high in charge of ledgers. A customer has the consolation of reflecting that a boy fresh from school, who perhaps has never learned to hold his tongue, knows all the ins and outs of an important account. Todd was a junior in the Union Bank, doing the work of a £450 teller for £175, and one remembers that official in charge of the Egerton bank when it was robbed was a mere lad. In "both instances young men were thrust forward into positions they should have only occupied after many years of service, because, one suspects, heavy salaries were thereby dispensed with. Juniors should certainly be kept in their places. But as to the Todd case, it is a very awkward one from which to deduce a moral against bank management. The direct lesson it teaches is to young men not to suppose that, because they have to count out money, that they can belt with it— not to imagine that any fool can become a successful thief— not to give way to the terrible delusion that makes any meditated crime seem easy and- secure." j "Ex-Banker" writes to the Age as {follows :— " Banks find by experience that they have a hundred applicants for every vacancy at whatever salary they choosu to give. They pay their general manage: .*s a very large salary, and in return these gentlemen are expected to make large profits, which cannot always be done in the present state of banking competition, if the officials are paid full value for their work. While the world lasts the ' strong will oppress the weak, and the weak hate the .strong.' Such is my experience; in Colonial banks at any rate ; and I just ask the parents of respectable lads to pause and consider ere they put their sons into these establishments. I believe I may assert, without fear of contradiction, that there is no occupation in proportion to the number employed, from which so many fly in disgust. The country is full of exbankers, and I have no doubt that many have been driven to evil courses by the heartlessness of their employers." TELEGRAPHIC REPORTIN G. (The Times.) Full reports of tlie long expected speech delivered by Mr Bright in Birmingham on Wednesday evening were telegraphed to the leading newspapers of Inverness, Aberdeen, Dundee, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Cork, Belfast, Dublin, Darlington, Newcastle, Hull, Sheffield, Bradford, Bristol, Cardiff, Plymouth, and Exeter, and published in ■ the firat impressions of those papers on Thursday morninsr. Besides having verbatim reports of the. speech, many newspapers had long descriptive reports of tlie scene in Bingley-hall telegraphed to them. The separate reports sent from Birmingham to various parts of the country contained more than 100,000 words— i c, more than 80 columns of The Times newspaper. One newspaper alone published in its first impression nearly 12,000 words received by telegraph, which : isequalto nearly six columns of The Times. In making arrangements for the : transmission of this vast quantity of news, the Post Office, as a matter of course, was guided merely by the requirements of the Press. Oil no recent occassion has there been so great a demand for a full report of a speech made in public. Tlie best officers in the Birmingham Office were retained for the occassion. .A large supplementary force was sent to their asssistance. In London and all the principal towns like arrangements for supervisions and actual work were made ; and in Birmingham ah abundant provision of wire and instrument accommodation was organised. On this occassion Birmingham communicated direct with no less than 32 great towns, which, in their turn, transmitted the speech to other towns. It is supposed that equally efficient arrangements will be made, if required, for the transmission of -Mr Disraeli's speeches from Glasgow when : he visits that city; in November. 'It is" understood that the work from Birinirigham was done very satisfactorily, although on the same evening ; the. Post .Office had very heavy Press work from Oxfordj Newmarket, Hull, and other places. j The American cotton crop has ) been seriously damaged by drought and worms. The Palais Royal in Paris has now been reboilti arid the famous* clock bells 'which sound the hours have been replaced. The excess in the expenditure of the Vienna • Exhibition 1 ' over the receipts amounted to on October Ist.