BANK MANAGEMENT.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 901, 16 December 1871, Page 2

BANK MANAGEMENT.

(To the Editor of the Westport Times and Charleston Argus.) Sir,—Permit me through the medium of your columns to make known to the public the manner in which I have been treated by an official of the Bank of New South Wales, Charleston, and the glaring violation of the rules necessary to secure parties in depositing money in a bank. Some time since a case was heard in the Warden's Court in which Mr Donne was plaintiff and I was defendant. It will be unnecessary for me to enter iato the particulars of the case, suffice it will to say that Mr Donne obtained judgment, but as I did not consider myself indebted, as the debt had been incurred by a registered company of which I was manager, I allowed myself to be incarcerated in the debtors' prison, Westport, to satisfy the amount. At that time I had a sum of money deposited at interest, in the Bank of New South Wales, Charleston, and with the exception of myself and the bank officials, no living person knew that I had money in any bank whatever. Imagine my surprise to find, upon my return from Westport, that the bailiff in my absence had seized upon my money. I immediately went and saw Mr Jones, who stated that

ho had told the bailiff that I had money in the Bank of New South Wales, and also stated that the bailiff had been at the other banksj making enquiries relative to my having any money in tbom, before going to the Bank of New South "Wales, of which Mr Jones is agent in Charleston. Thiß statement I found upon subsequent enquiries at the other banks to be false, as the bailiff had not been to the other banks enquiring upon the subject. Mr Jones, however, seemed to think that he had overstepped his mark, as upon the presentation of the receipts on the followiug day he paid me the full amount, I being necessarily compelled to forfeit the interest. Upon receiving the money I told him I would not allow the matter ta drop until I had his conduct thoroughly investigated by his superiors, and the affair made as public as possible through the press on the Coast; and this I am determined to do as far as it lays in my power, for although being as willing as any person to concede to the ties of friendship, yet when a man in Mr Jones's position thinks proper to violate the secrecy and flagrantly disabuse the duties of his office* in order to gratify the wishes or reimburse the losses of a friend, I think it is high time that the eyes of his superiors and the public should be opened to the fact that where such a state of things (and, Mr Editor, this is not the only violation of his duties perpetrated by Mr Jones) the interests of parties transacting business with the branch of the bank of which Mr Jones is agent, cannot be considered to have that amouut of care taken with them which is necessary in order to secure the confidence of parties transacting business with a respectable corporation. With apologies for trespassing on your space, but at the same time feeling that the facts of the case warrant it, I remain, Ac, Cornelius O'Connor. Charleston, Dec. 14.