THE SAVE DEPOSIT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10479, 26 June 1897, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE SAVE DEPOSIT.

ITS MYSTERIES, ITS RICHES, AND

ITS ROMANCES. A list of articles contained in the strong boxes of the State Deposit would apparently form most surprising and amusing reading. With safes arid strong rooms outside a bank one generally associates the idea of securities, stocks, bonds, and musty old deeds. But all sorts of queer things get stewed away there. Securities, of course, form the balk. One gentleman at this moment has a strong room in the Chancery Lane Safe Deposit built under his own supervision, and supposed to have the most perfectlyfitted door yet constructed ; and it need be, for within the care of its wondrous locks are bonds to the value of the mere trifle of 40 million sterling. But there are many people who rent safes and devote quite as much anxiety to the oddest of things, often, indeed, articles of little or np value. Buried away within these strong boxes are the secrets of many a romance, perhaps as well as thejhidden clues bo many a crime. It ia supposed now that the revival of the great Panama scandal is due to the discovery of incriminating papers left by Arton in the Chancery Lane Safe Deposit. It may well be eo, though at the Safe Deposit) a pressman found that the idea was laughed at, and was diplomatically informed that "no man of the name of ' Arton' ever was a renter at the establishment." Incriminating papers are quite a common form of deposit, particularly those that may some day be useful in the Divorce Court. A trusting wife finds a lady's love-letter not signed by herself accidentally left in her husband's pocket; away she hurries with it to Chancery Lane. Many a little safe has been rented merely for love-letters. When a renter goes down his box is carried into a writing-room to him, and he may, if lie choose, take it into a locker, a small closet. at the top end of the room, and lock himself in, bo that no one but himself can see what be putt in or takes out. But in many instances the customers become communicative, and tell of their treasures and sometimes show them. One man certainly did not, That was the burglar who had stored away the proceeds of about 30 big burglaries. i. wife's secret romance. Down to a little while ago there was one lady who went regularly on a certain day every year to weep over a few withered flowers and a tear-stained letter or two of an early lover, who, as si e herself had done, had married someone else. She, the attendant at the Deposit, and her lawyer, were the only souls on earth who knew the secret of her life; and when she died tbo contents of her safe were taken by the solicitor, under orders she had left him, and secretly

buried with her. But there are other stories of love-letters in the strong boxes that are amusing. A well-known actress delighting London audiences at this moment waa once a renter, and never \en than two or three times » week visited her sate, and she made no secret of the fact that she came to add another letter to a etock that some day might be useful in a breach of promise action. Eventually ehe came clown, gave her safe key up, and handing the attendant the large bundle of letters ehe had so carefully treasured, exclaimed with a merry smile, "Burn these for me, will you? We're married now!" Men chiefly do the silly things; a woman generally shows some cutenees and ha- some reason for her outlay of rent. One gentleman paid a guinea a year for twelve years to preserve the MSS. of a novel he had written—and

could not get published. Another gentleman preserved there hie family Bible ; but hie excuse was that it was not the Bible so much as the entries of the family births and deaths on the flyleaf that he cared about. And here it may be mentioned that nil the original MSS of Shakespere are stored in the Deposit just now awaiting a purphaser. Another strange deposit awaitins sale is a collection of foreign stamps valued at £50,000. Still another is a parcel of mummies.

But one that caused the pressman to open his eyes the widest when he heard of it was « deposit of rubies—several tons of them. They were taken to the Deposit in waggons ! Of course they are closely (keel up in cases. What their value is (or what their rate per ton, say) cannot even be guessed at as they are yet uncut. Just now, too, one of the strong rooms is packed with jewels believed to amount to a fabulous value. They

belong to a certain European sovereign whose name is very much to the fore at thi* time, and he has sent them over eo that he may have something to retire on supposing anything happened! Most ot the big merchants, too, are now keeping their stock here, Nuggets are most frequently put in by the diggers themselves when they arrive. Africa has provided another deposit of n touching character—one of the assegais with which the Prince Imperial was killed. Her Majesty's judgos frequently send importanb papers to bo " safeil." All the Parpell Commission documents were kept here during the and when the " Missing Word" competition'was stopped 13 sacks of postal orders were deposited to await the decision of the court.