GLASGOW BANK FAILURE.

Temuka Leader, Volume 2, Issue 110, 4 January 1879, Page 2

GLASGOW BANK FAILURE.

The Dunedin ‘Herald’s’ London letter contains the following paragraphs on this catastrophe : The more that is known as to the City of Glasgow Bank frauds, the. more hideous do they appear. After careful investigation the net result is, that a liability of five millions rests upon some five hundred shareholders, many of whom are utterly unable to find oven a fraction of the firstcall, which has just been made, and amounts to LSOO per share, payable in two instalments. The prosecution of the impiisoned directors will proceed on five principal counts —first, for publishing a false report ; second for issuing a false balance-sheet ; third, for paying a dividend when there was no profit; fourth, for buying the Banks shares to keep up. the price ; fifth, for inviting persons to open accounts when the Bank was insolvent. They are charged further with the misappropriation of L 20,000 of discounted bills.

According to a not very brilliant jest, ■usually attributed to Sidney Smith, “ Ifourpennvpicces were coined so as to enable Scotchmen to be generous.” Like numerous other sneers of a similar description emanating from that very worldly-minded son of the Church, it is intended to convey the idea that North countrymen are essentially ungenerous. The truth of the matter is a Scotchman is prudent, and only spends his money when it can be done with ad vantage to himself and others. The City of Glasgow Rank fails, and immediately a subscription' is got up to help the needy shareholders who are ruined through no fault of their own. The first public meeting starts the fund with L 55,00 many firms, though losers themselves, giving LBOUO each. The City of

Glasgow proposes to give LSOOO from the public funds, and the City of Edinburgh follows suit with an equal sum. The other banks, frequently as their operations were disordered by the reckless knavery of the bankrupt hunk’s directorate, hare not only absorbed its notes and deposits, but are prepared to subscribe handsomely to find in aid of the poorer shareholders, This is true generosity—but not the careless “ generosity ” of those who sneer at the hard-fisted Scotchmen.

A -p'-opoa of this Scotch bank failure, I have the following good story to relate, and which, I am assured, lias the advantage of beinge strictly true. There was a branch of the Glasgow Bank established in an out-of-the-way Scotch town, where too postal ami telegraphic business was done by an old lady, assisted in the-latter department by her daughter. The old lady had an account with the bank. One morning there arrival a messawe for the bank, con tain ominous words, “ Close at once.” The old lady heard it read eff from the dial, and while it was being transcribed and placed in the familiar orange-coloured envelope, she quietly popped on her bonnet and shawl, and ran to the bank and withdrew her balance. Five minutes later this fine specimen of the “canny” Scot was mingling with her compatriots outside, wondering what was meant by the fateful words—“ Bank closed.”