MILLIONS OF OWNERLESS SOVEREIGNS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 207, 22 August 1908, Page 4

MILLIONS OF OWNERLESS SOVEREIGNS

If the Bill which is now before the Biitish Parliament becomes law, the State will be the richer by a huge sum of money which is now lying unclaimed in the vaults of the banks of the United Kingdom. How much exactly there will be nobody knows, not even the banks. A few years ago a sort of semi-official statement issued on behalf of the bankers, put the amount as low as £500,000. This, probably, is far below the mark. Independent estimates vary between £10,000,000 and £30,000,000. Probably the truth lies somewhere between, say, £20,000,000. The greater part of this has been left unclaimed through death. Many men have not one banking account only, but several, and are intensely secretive about them. When such a one dies, especially if he leave no will, the chanoes are that his heirs never get to hear of any but the principal account or accounts, the subsidiary ones not figuring amongst his papers. In due course the' balances of these become the property of the bankers who hold them.

Very valuable property, too, is frequently stored for many years in the vaults of banks, and in the end forgotten. Then, too, there are notes, cheques, letters of credit, and so on, that are lost or destroyed, and, consequently, are never presented. Unclaimed dividends, again, are continually accumulating; and, although these are frequently called for, even after the lapse of years, there are others that are allowed permanently to lapse, cither through carelessness or ignorance. Even tile separate aggregates, made up from all these sources, are, in the case of some of the larger concerns, very considerable. For instance, the introducer of tlie Bill,in question states thai there is one famous private bank whk-li admittedly has over two millions ef dormant securities; while standing in the heart of the City of London is a magnificent stone building, the office of one of the Scotch banks, which was built entirely out of the accumulation of unclaimed balances.