EARLY NINETIES

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 345, 5 October 1932, Page 7

EARLY NINETIES

(Speeial to "Post.")

BANK MANAGER TELLS OF "BAD OLD DAYS." SOME AMUSING STORIES.

Christchurch, Friday. Some interesting and amusing reminiscences of his early service in the Bank of New Zealand were given by Mr. John MacGihbon at a gathering held in his honour reeently. Mr. MacGihbon recalled "the had . old days of the early nineties." He was sent to the branch of the bank and had to do the work of teller, without salary. Unfortunately, both he and the manager handled the mon'ey, and on a Saturday when they were paying out school teachers' salaries, a £1 note went missing. "I told the manager he had lost the note," said Mr. MacGihbon, "and he said that if it did not turn up by the Monday he would put one in. At church on the Sunday a teacher came to him and returned the £1 note, remarking, T knew MacGibhon would lose it, otherwise I would have stuck to it." Some "Characters." Many of the bank managers in those days were what are now called 'characters'," said Mr. MacGibbon;, "There were other men of the same sort in the towns, and sometimes when they all got together the juniors had to xun the bank for dayS on end. One day I had to get my manager out of a hilllard room, and I am sure he did not know which ball was red, white, or spot." Mr. MacGihbon recalled an occasion when two men wanted a large advance from the bank against rural property. They took the hank manager to the place and gave him a very good time while he was looking over two large properties. He took such a rosy view of the position, and made such glowing recommendations to head office, that a large sum was advaneed, and the hank lost about £30,000 on that deal. On the Goldfieids. During a period in. which he was relieving in Gentral Otago, during the gold boom, Mr. MacGihbon once handled 1300 ounces of gold from tho Electric C'ompany, the record for the best week's dredging. He had to keep the gold in the bank during the-week-end, and it was a worrying experience looking after it until it could be sent to Dunedin. While in Central Otago Mr. MacGihbon had the experience of two dishonest Chinese — one who stole a small quantity of fine gold after having his winnings weighed in the bank, by the use of a piece of sticky paper, to which the gold adhered; and another who put a lot of brass filings in the gold. Another bank had experience of a man who came in with a bar of gold which seemed to be genuine, but which, when assayed, was found to have a large lump of base metal inside it.\ Troupe of Monkeys. "I have been asked," said Mr. MacGibbon, "what was the strangest proposal ever put to me. It happened in Christchurch not many years ago. A woman came in and asked me. for an overdraft. I did not know her, •and sh'e had no aecount with us. I asked what security she had to give. The security she pffered was a troupe of performing monkeys." Mr. MacGibbon recalled the old ways of shifting gold from one hank to another. On one occasion 50,000 sovereigns were heing carried in an old four-wheeler, when the whole bottom of the cab fell out, and the money rolled on to the road. Also, on one occasion in Dunedin, through some aceident or oth'er, a thousand sovereigns went rolling down the streets and in the gutters. Again, a whole bag of notes scattered everywhere, hut fortunately most of them were reeovered. " Mr. MacGibbon closed with a reference to a bank officer who spent his Sunday morning lying in bed and shooting at flies on the wall with the bank revolver; and another man who used to sit on the top step of a staircase and shoot th'e flame of a candle on the landing below. The revolver practice of these men had, needless to. say, left its mark on the bank walls.