LOST MILLIONS LURE YANKEES.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XLIX, Issue 13904, 4 November 1919, Page 2

LOST MILLIONS LURE YANKEES.

(Bv Harden Church.) "Unclaimed millions." What magic there is in those words! How it appeals to the imagination to picture vast sums of money that are lying idle, and have been lying idle for centuries because nb one knows who the rightful owners of them are,-or where they are And where in all the world do such vast hoards of unclaimed wealth cxk.. as here in England from whose shores so manv heirs to fortunes or estates have away to distant lands a,Kthe,-e disappeared, never to be hwud ol ag What a loadstone to Americans who believe themselves entitled, to a slice ol them. the. supposed "unclaimed mdhons in Chancerv," have proved lor many ve-irs And how many astute lawyers have spent pleasant days in tins country and drawn handsome salar.es meanwhile, as the representatives o "syndicates" of credulous lo k wo fondly imagine that millions kit .»> some'real or reputed ancestor ol theirs sue lying unclaimed here. Vain it has always been, lor the British Chancery authorities and American Ambassadors alike, to assert nto most positive terms that there ,ue o nclaimed "millions" m Chancery, but eSva small sum. This particular, mvth is one that never dies and so the British Chancery Court, and the Annto the end of time, will nrnlVblv set letters from American ?4e £' to* the "Drake millions," or the "Jennens millions," or some othe. millions. e ,_ Now another treasure trove of unclaimed wealth has ibeen discovered. This time the "millions" consist of dorrvt.it bank balances and unclaimed see unties enough of which it is claimed bv Horatio Bottomley M.P-, o&x tor ol John Bull, exist ir.this, country to go a long way toward paying Gie at Btain's staggering war deflit It «* B°ttomlev's idea, of course, that the government should confiscate there dormant balances and unclaimed «*"" l '"\ and though the Chancellor o _ o Excheciuer has asserted positively that they represent nothing like the total imagined by Bottomley. the latter recently succeeded m getting a Select Committe of the .House or Commons appointed to investigate the subject, ami this Committee is now hearing e\ idence.

The result■, thus far, would appear to indicate that the Chancellor ot the Exchequer sized up the siluaton accurately, and that Bottomley's hectic imagination carried-him away in this instance, as it had done in some others. It has long, been well known that thestrong room's of London banks some ot which have been established for hundreds of years, are treasure houses c,V old familv plate, jewels, documents and fascinatingly interesting relics ot many kinds, and the inquiry now being held has revealed picturesque details as to some of these. But it has failed, so far, to reveal the existence ot dormant millions. ,„ ~. In this respect the evidence ot l*. \\ . Fane, one of the partners in Child s Bank' (the "Tollson's" in Dickens "Tale of Two Cities") is typical. He stated that the. total unclaimed balances held bv his bank was £78.641. of which £1607 had been repaid. Fane stated that Child's Bank, one of tho oldest in London, was started in 1600. A reference he made «to Nell Gwynne's account prompted Horatio Bottomley to ask, "Do you suggest that Nell Gwvnne died with an overdraft?" ' , "Yes, I think she was overdrawn, tho banker replied. Mr Fane said his impression that "Sweet Nell." tho orange girl who became a king's favorite, was in debt .it tho end to his establishment had proved correst. . "Poor little thing!" he exclaimed, as if he were speaking of a recently deceased client whom the house had liked and respected, in spite of the overdraft. "And do you know," he added, "she couldn't read or write. Her cheques were endorsed with a, big 'N.G., her mark,' and of these wo still treasure one."