ON BANKS AND THE INTENTION OF SAVINGS' BANKS.

Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume 1, Issue 8, 12 April 1849, Page 2

ON BANKS AND THE INTENTION OF SAVINGS' BANKS.

UNKNOWN many years past, been found UNKNOWN England and other European UNKNOWN UNKNOWN Banks; or houses in which UNKNOWN of the merchants, and other UNKNOWN remain in security. I'_; -.iore couvenb it for a merchant or a :; : -.(v,. Keeper, wha has much bnsiues*, to bnvc 'eis liioney kept at the b.Tiilc ihau in his own !..■■.... : for these reasons. 'J'hn money, if ;,, ,''i i'.i mcicli int's house, mi'»U*. b<; stolen 'v ■'! •/ ••, while in ilic bank, t}i.; iron hcxps , : -.iie money is kei<t arn so strong, and . •.•'■:3 so difficult to bo opened without , ..j.'er key, that it would be very dillicuit ''win to lie broken into. While the mer'■■n.i, iioiiM-a b> very frequently built of .1, the banks 'e generally of brick or :...-, which will not burn as the other male' ..ils. I'ivea sli'.ild the bank possibly be burned down, the iion boxes which I have "vtitioned are si, tbiek. thai the money in I'lt'ii would not be octroyed. >; ilia sliopkeaptfi' tikes in payment for bis ■-■i.'iN.j /; j»reat dealc!'co|)|i':r, <:i of small diver '.■>.ii-V, Mich ;iS tbtuejivMiy u.'i'l Iboiy.-aiiy i.c.i, "id if li« want to pay a lar,><: sum oi' ii.y to the cap'.iin »1 a ship fri-m Mime .? ■• -it ■ ■<-.' for the !;our r.nd sxigar which ha:i

corns in that ship, ho can send to the bank and get gold or notes for the copper or small silver which he sent the day previously to the bank. Generally, about once every day, the merchant!) and shopkeepers send the money which has been taken by thum, on the day previous, to the bank ; where it is counted, and the sum of it written in a book kept for the purpose. On the next day the shopkeeper may want to pay away some money : ho then writes an order to the banker to p.iy to the man to whom it may be due the amount of the debt. When this order is preseated nt the bank, the clerk of the bank knows by looking at tlio book in which the sums received were written, whether or not the merchant has so much money there us is ordered to be payed. Now if the order be to the effect that twenty-seven pounds ten shillings is to be paid, mid there is one hundred pounds in the bank, belonging to the merchant, it is clear that seventy-two pounds ten shillings will still remain in the bank, and that amount, namely, seventy-two pound* ten shillings, is written down "in the book against the name of the merchant, and for this amount he can send in more orders. TJio sums of money taken to the- bank should not be less in amount than five pounds at a time, as a great deal of trouble would thereby be caused to the clerks in their writing often small sums in their books; and silver or copper to the amount of five pounds can very safely be kept in the merchant's box or drawer, although it would not be prudent to keep a larger sum there. A man may owe another a sum of money, say two hundred pounds, which he has promised to pay to him on the 12th April. On that <lnv lie goes to the house of tho man to pay him the money, but finds that the man has gone a short voyage in a ship, and that there is nobody to receive the money. Now the man |ias promised to pay the money on the 12th April, and he does not like to bicak his word, nor is it sale for him to carry about with him the two hundred pounds; he therefore goes to the bank, and pays the money to the hanker, telling him to write it down in the hook as belonging to tho man who is away, and which the banker does. N.iw he who went in the ship owed some money—one hundred and twenty pounds—to a man, for some work which was performed mi the 11 tli April, and also (o another man eighty pounds, for house rent, which becomes due on the 12th Apiil. Tho two persons to whom these sums an: respectively owing, go to the hank on the J2th April. The amount which they require is two hundred pounds ; and on inquiry they find that two hundred pounds is there, wr'nten down as belonging to the man who has gone in the ship: they produce their orders on the bank, and the banker pays them the money. Next day some more money comes in, and snme more is also paid away in the same manner ; and so business is done at the bank on behalf of people who may bo in Sydney or England, and all is done quietly and conducted straightly. You k'i»w that ships are very often lost nt sea, and that from many which aio thrown upon tho coast, very little of what they carried is saved. Now, in consequence of this, it is dangerous to send large sums of money from one place to another on board ship. The banks, in these cases, aro very convenient, as 1 will show you. A merchant in Auckland or Wellington buys the cattle or horses which are sent to New Zealand by a merchant in Sydney, and has to pay for them in a few months to the .man in Sydnoy who sent them. The vessel which brought the cattle takes back to Sydney a carjio of timber or wool, or Kauri gum, which is sold there. Now, for the cattle sold In Now Zealand, about six hundred pounds has to be paid to the man in Sydney who sent them ; and for the timber, or wool, or kauri gum sent to Sydney a sum of six or seven hundred pounds is owing to the merchant in New Zealand. ■ If the merchant at Wellington or Auckland had to send his money, in payment for his cattle, in the ship to Sydney ; ipid i'"tho price for the timber, wool, or gum had to ba sent to New Zealand by the next vessel sailing thither, there would be a great risk inclined of of the money being either lost by the wreck of | the ship,or of iis being stolen ero it reached the places to which it was directed. Nowhere is the use of the bank, Tho man who has bought the cattle in New Zealand , goes to the bank at Auckland or Wellington, and there puts in seven hundred pounds, for which the banker gives him a letter addressed to the banker in Sydney, telling biin to pay to the recent owner of the cattle seven hun ' dred pounds. The ship which takes the ' timber, being the first that is sailing to Syd- | ncy, conveys this letter. When the letter arrives in Sydney, the miin , who sent the cattle goes to the bank and gets his sevin hundred pounds. You will now want to know how the money cm bo paid by the banker in Sydney, who has not, by any ship, received the gold or

silver with which to pay so much money, j He does it in this way. The- merchant in , Sydney who hnys the* wool, or timber, or gum, which has been sent in the ship, wants ( to pay about six or seven hundred pounds , to the man in New Zealand who sent these | things. He therefore goes to the bank, nnd , there gives that money for a letter to the | banker in New Zealand, ordering him to pay , the price for the goods which he has bought; ( and so the money which the timber sells for, , may bo paid in New Zealand out of what was ( paid into the bank there for the cattle, and | thus no money is seat backwards or forwards , in the ships. i As the vessel which carries the order for the money from bank to bank might be lost, three copies of it are always sent in the three first Vessels sailing, and when any ono of llusc arrives, the money is paid. In the case of iho cattle and the limber, the payments have been of an equal amount; but this, as you will probably have thought, will not always be the case. Sometimes Iho money to be paid at Sydney is more than in the same year is to be paid in Now Zealand ; then the banker in New Zealand gives an order on the banker in Knglanil lo pay money to the amount of what has been given into his hank here; and as the Sydney people buy most of their goods from England, it is very easy for them to pay for some of them, by writing lo tlie merchant in England whose goods they have bought, to take as payment the money which the English banker holds of theirs. (J'» be continued.)