FOUNDING A BANK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18887, 9 December 1924, Page 13

FOUNDING A BANK.

% ] GOLDFIELDS INCIDENT.

SOME DOUBTFUL NOTES.

DATED ON A SUNDAY.

SERIOUS POLICE INQUIRIES.

No. 11.

•The adventures of Mr. Falconer Lurkworthy with the first issue of Bank of New Zealand notes form an interesting chapter in his reminiscences. The notes, as related yesterday, were locally printed op ordinary note paper. With sorao thousands of thsra Mr. Larkworthy proceeded from Dunelin «to Weatherstone, a remote Olago goldfield, late in the year 1861, with the intention of purchasing gold. He negotiated with a storekeeper for the use of a part of his counter, and was cordially welcomed. Relating his exper-* iences, he proceeds:—

"The tidings of my presence went like wild-fire, and I stood all day buying gold-dust as hard as I could. The crowd" was so great that I enlisted the services of the store-keeper and one of his assistants to buy on commission, and I met applications for advances to enable them to buy from other

store-keepers, somo of them being cus-

tomers of the other banks. They received - the notes in tho morning and accounted for them in gold-dust in tho evening. ; "In the course of two or three days I fc*d practically cleared the field of its already harvested treasure on, for the bank, highly advantageous tonus. Every

evening I deposited my purchases with

" Major Baldwin, until I had between 3000 and 4000 ounces on hand for transport jio Dunedin by the first escort; after forti-

lying some store-keepers with tho re-

mainder of the notes I had 011 hand —one 'of whom was a Jew, named Jacob, an old Beechworth acquaintancel started on my retmn journey to Dunedin.' . "I was delighted with my successful coup, and contemplated a further raid 011 the same fielQ as soon as I could manufacture another supply of notes; but I had little idra what was in store for me. A Policeman in the Bank. ; "All seemed to go smoothly for the next few days after mv return to Dunedin. The escort was soon expected to arrive from tho Weatherstone, and I intended to send back by it further supplies of notes to make, good tho position there that I had already secured. "Imagine my surprise whe.i one day St. John Brannigan, my old Kilmore acquaintance, in trooper costume, . dust-stained, and somewhat excited in manner, walked into my "room at the bank I had not ; the slightest idea that he was in New Zealand, or that he was anywhere but in Victoria, where I had left him. i "In reply to my expression of surprise, ■ he rapidly explained that- lie was now chief of the police in Otago; that he had just been arranging the escort service from - the Weatherstone, and had come to town with the escort; that the Goldfields Commissioner had requested him to see the gold-dust consigned to the Bank of New Zealand was not delivered until ho was satisfied that it was all right. I interrupted him with the ejaculation: 'All right! What's wrong?'—visions of banknotes on tissue paper looming up in my heated imagination so that I felt 'like a guilty thing surprised.' " 'There's been a devil of a row on the ' Weatherstone,' ho continued, 'and if I had not accidentally turned up, I don't know what would have happened—you have evidently some enemies about.' "More perplexed than ever, I urged him to proceed. " 'Oh! I knew it was all a lie,' ho said, 'for I recognised your signature on thu notes, and I said so; but they will have it up there that one of the .nost gigantic swindles in gold-buying ever perpetrated has been cleverly carried out; and, according to their description, you're the man who's wanted. Why! let me see: rather stout build, about sft. llin. high, light complexion bluish-grey eyes, light hair, slight moustache, and rather impetuous manner. Does not that fit ?' "Flash," Notes. *

"I urged him to put, an end to my suspense and tat me know really what bad happened. The following is the substance of his narrative:— "Jacob, with the supply of notes I had left him, had been doing a big trade with the diggers, and among his customers was an Irishman named Flamiagan.it "This man was in the habit of sending a monthly remittance to his family in Ireland, and shortly after selling a -parce . of gold jo Jacob, lie rode over to Waitahuna to obtain a draft on Ireland from

one of the banks there, and tendered in payment for .. tho 'same some Bank of New Zealand notes he had received from Jacob.

"The cashier examined the notes closely, then consulted : hi/ superior officer, and finally chucked them back across the counter to Flannagan, remarking curtly, 'They're no good,' and refused to give any further explanation. "Tbo digger was naturally taken very much aback, and as lie could get no further enlightenment on the matter at Waitahuna, lie returned to the Weatherstone as fast as his horse could carry him and presented himself at the' Jew's store, and demanded back his gold-dust. ; _ Jacob explained that this was not practicable as his parcel was mixed up with other purchases, anc|*r he stoutly) maintained that nothing was wrong with the. notes, as he knew me personally. Flannagan replied that if so they were . no good to him if others would not take them, and that ho must either have his :; gold-dust back or tho value in other bank notes or in coin. The Jew then injudiciously remarked that if he must have the notes changed he would give him 10s in the pound for them, and this so irritated Flannagan that he immediately left the store and proceeded to the. commissioner's camp. There he laid an information against Jacob for wing given him 'flash notes,' for such Jhev had been declared to lie by tho Union Bank of Australia, in exchange for his gold-dust, and for having taken in many of his companions in the same mariner. "Without any further ado the police •-cted upon this sworn information and arrested Jacob.

Pacifying the Diggers. 'On the following morning St. John •Brannigan arrived at the camp with the e scort, and on examining the notes he at once identified my signature, said he Knew me intimately, and that lie was Quite convinced, there must be a satisJactory explanation of the matter. Ho Persuaded Major Baldwin that fraud was exceedingly unlikely, seeing that I was v fill known, that the notes purported to . )e , J? SUe d by a bank which had lately csab ished a branch in Dunedin, and whose advertisement appeared in the daily papers, with my name at foot, and that ■ • 0 gold bought with the notes in ques'on was consigned to the same bank in n > a ' V ' as a '' that moment in his

' <1, news of the assumed fraud and of ; i§ o arrest of the Jew, and of the gold ► at ,^ c police camp, soon circulated mong the diggers, and the holders of 'M<. notes assembled in mass in front of Ki"~ tJ l C j m ® lßs i on er , s office. Branmgan apIki to , thern . , to treat the matter reason* \ a ' il ' s e! *° allay the anxiety INS#iK ic i was very natural in the circum.l ce . s > a ? d on the commissioner's deration that the authorities would not ift/i.fi*! 115 ], the ,K° ld - dust * until they had - S C^ themf;elves thai the notes were ilsteteTitin «y. abandoned their avowed in- ' - nf ion of interfering with 'the departure W®itetw£r^ rt,;: - and -of helping themselves v al '' he X considered their own.

" 'And now.' said St. John Brannigan, 4 tho best thing you can do is to come up with me to-morrow in the escort-cart, and retire with sovereigns any notes that may be presented to you, as nothing short of this, in my opinion, will restoro confidence among the diggers.' "His suggestion certainly commended itself to me, but if I adopted it it might land me in difficulty, as I had not sufficient sovereigns to retire all the notes I had issued, by a considerable sum; but this fact I kept to myself. "Hoping for the best, I fell in with Brannigan's proposal and decided to take with me about eight thousand sovereigns, all that I could safely spare, having regard to the bank's requirements at Dunedin.

"From Brc-nnigan's account I expected to find a considerable crowd awaiting my arrival at the Weatherstone, but when we pulled up at the commissioner's camp no such crowd appeared, only the ordinary hangers-about, who usually are attracted by the arrival of the escorts and coaches. My uneasiness was greatly relieved when Major Baldwin assured me that I had taken the proper course, and expressed his conviction that the whole matter would blow over without any further trouble. "He recommended me to take a walk along the creek before dark and announce my arrival to the diggers, and invito those interested to meet me at the camp the following morning. "As it was getting late I agreed to do this at once, and he then told me that he had made it his business to communicate with the other banks as to their .refusal to take Bank of New Zealand notes, and that while they admitted they had refused them, and expressed their intention still to' refuse them, they justified the step on the ground that the notes were dated on a Sunday, and thereforo were not valid.

Mountain Becomes a Molehill. "This took mo by surprise, but on reference to Major Baldwin's calendar there could bo no doubt as to tho date of tho note being that of a Sunday, although I was absolutely certain they had neither been prepared nor signed on a Sunday, but tis to their being vitiated by bearing the date of a Sunday was another question which I could not settle on the nail.

"My interviews with the diggers I met, as I strolled up the creek, were of a reassuring character. Rumour had anticipated the tills facts of the .case, and anxieties had been allayed by the outspoken assurances and the goodwill of St. John Brannigan, and also by the fact that the storekeepers were showing their confidence by receiving the notes in payment for their goods. Indeed, there was every disposition on the part of tho miners to sympathise with me in regard to the back-handed attack made upon the bank by its rivals, whose jealousy of tho colonial bantling I did not fail to Jay particular stress upon. "On the following -morning tho mountain became, a molehill, and the whole proceeding a farce, whpn the threatened multitudes melted into one solitary digger who presented himself to me at. the com-, missioner's camp, and asked for a sovereign for a pound note —which I concluded was intended as a joke on his part. "On my return to Dunedin I found that the press had taken up the matter in a decidedly hostile spirit to the action of the other banks, and had invited the public to mark their sense of this ungenerous treatment of a local institution by transferring their accounts to it, and by exercising their influence in its favour wherever possible. . This suggestion was promptly and heartily responded to, and the bank was at once placed, in regard to deposits and volume of business, in a position to compare favourably with the older institutions.