JOHN BULLS BIG BILLS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 213, 29 August 1908, Page 4

JOHN BULLS BIG BILLS.

STORIES OF CLAIMS Kill MILLIONS. The cpiestion of the ultimate ownership or unclaimed bank baiauces was raised in Parliament a few Kecks ago, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer answered that he did not believe the total amount exceoueu .CliOU.uuu Other estimates set the total at ten times that sum, but it seems very unUKcly that the facts will ever bo known. it, however, the Government did seize upon uiese moneys, it would only be tuilowing on j ub uwii precedent. Xnc total amount ol tlie dormant iunds in Uiaiicery to very large, out of Zou,Ouu Government »,ocKiiolders uuciuimcil tiuius arc crcuiteu to some iI,OUU accounts; while, to take one comparatively small item aioue, Liielsea Hospital has benelitcd to tuc extent ol nearly two millions by unclaimed prize money. 'the Treasury also benelils largely by unclaimed estates. The amount gamed m tins way varies between twelve and twenty thousand a year, only a small part of wiiich is ever reclaimed and retunded. Sim, there are occasions when Chancery is compelled to disgorge. i\o longer ago man jlay last it was announced nom Jersey mat a private sonaer had loeen loriunale cnouyh to prove his claim to aomewnng n K e hall a million oi money. But, n some are lucky- enough to net their inone}, me great majority wiu have, or lancy mey nave, ciaims against tue British Government, waste then whole lives in a vain cUort alter raiuho w gold. One such case which has recently received mention in the daily papers is that of the Peruzzi millions, it is alleged that, in the days of Edward Hi., one of the l'eruzzis, a banker oi Lombardy, lent to the English monarch a sum of money tu help him to equip an army in France.

With compound interest up to date, this loan now amounts to a sum so prodigious as to make it futile to set down its rows of iigures. They convey no impression at all. The best way of conveying their magnitude is to st-ate that ull the gold and silver in the world would not suilice to liquidate the debt. Americans are constantly worrying their Ambassador in London by making amazing claims on the British Government, which they coolly desire him to enforce. About eight years ago a Mr. Corey, of Omaha, Nebraska, arrived in London to " take possession " of the Corey 'Estate, consisting of a trilling matter ot forty millions "in stocks, bonds, and gold." The money, he alleged, had been in Chancery for .sixty-rive years, and a large number of his relatives had subscribed the necessary funds to send Mr. Corey across. Mr. Ohoate, the American Ambassador, was asked, and did write about the matter. Alas for Mr. Corey! His proofs were iusuiiicieutj, Brita'in still owes that forty millions. Then came the great Crowell claim. The Crowells—there were six of them—avowed that Britain owed them a number of millions, the produce of money left by a certain John Crowell, who died in Yarmouth late in the eighteenth century. They returned to America poorer, not richer, than when they started. The Jennings' case is one of the moot famous of all. The claimant, who lives in Montreal, brought over a burden of proof, which occupied reams of ancient documents. Huge sums were ottered fo." certain missing links—as much, it is said, as- a million sterling! Small wonder, for the Jennings' millions—with accumulated interest—involve an amount equal to one-fifth of the National Debt. English people, as well as foreigners and Americans, are among the selfstyled creditors of the British Government. A Brixton lady claims that an estate to the value of live millions sterling has been withheld from her fly the Government and Bank of England. ' This lady petitioned the House of Commons on the subject, stating that the basis of her claim was a loan of one million made to the British Government in the year 1700 by the trustees of an ancestor of hers, who resided in Bury St. Edmunds. The story of how the dividends were left unclaimed, and the money transferred to the Commissioners for the reduction of the National Debt, is too lengthy to set forth here. There arc ninny of these more or less historic claims. They involve much litigation- and seldom result in profit for anyone except lawyers. The British -Government is an oyster not opened without complete proofs, and not easily even, tlien, , ,