THE COLONIAL BANK AND THE ESCAPEE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10761, 27 March 1897, Page 3

THE COLONIAL BANK AND THE ESCAPEE.

TO.THE EDITOR. Sir, —Your correspondent "An Escaped Bird," by his letter in to-day's issue, fairiy i invites the views of others on his opinions ,j regarding the management of this bank, and I perhaps you will allow an outsider to air some | thoughts that struck him in reading the letter i They are merely the ideas of an ordinary | individual, who makes no pretension to be ! verted in the intricacies of finance a term j which is fast losing its own meaning for that of | its neighbour _" finesse," in order that its j votary, if so inclined, may the more readily | indulge in those subtleties of contrivance or I dodges, now disclosed to the sense of an j astonished, and let us hope, for goodness' sake, i a disgusted public. i Task, why should Mr H'Lean be specially i singled out for castig&tion ? Surely we know i that he mas not the only "pawky" personage |on the directorate. It :.s most improbable even I though he had set himself deliberately to hoodj wink his colleagues, that he would have suc- | ceeded. I do not say for their own sakes, but ) for the sake of commercial morality they j ought all to face the 'music—saints and sinners j together. ) Here is a little facb. Some years ago one of j my employees bought a cart horse in the market. i I happened to meet him driving the animal i home. He was ia a towering rage, ? .ad beating ] the poor brufce unmercifully. My remonstrance j brought out the explanation that the horse had | been " doctored" for the market, and that he | was afraid it would not be able to finish the = remainder of the road home. " However " j said he, "I'll take him to the D market : next week, and I'll get my money back no fear." " How ? " " Oh, I'll get the'blackemith to give him a oeilyful of small shot before starting, and that will keep him lively till he's off my hands ! " Questioned as to the morality jof his proposed seep, "Do you think I'm going to lose my £10 ? Not I;" and, would you believe it, he actually sold his purchase for £13! Of course the horse, in spite I of the most anxious " liursing," would collapse ! before long, and the only way consistent with I fc^ ci 6ymPathy and fair Sealing, that I can think of, by which that employee and any others 1 who may have been concerned with him over | the sale of the horse, is a concerted arrangeJ merit to restore to the cheated buyer or buyers j what they were defrauded of. So would they j have shown the practical sympathy suggested j to Mr M'Lean by your correspondent, who will, j perhaps,, now think of a certain Use for the moral supplied by the broken-down aorse ; for, from the way in which he writes I am satisfied .that a personal application of his owa very proper suggestion has never for one, moment ; crossed his imagination. Let me hasten to add j that I have unbounded sympathy for people who | hve in glass housss seeiDg that I live ia ooe j of them myself, sud never know the moment i when the stone will crash through and disturb |my equanimity. We all run the risk of that | happening to us at some time ,or other, I j suppose. An imaginary case for illus- | tration: A shares with other owners in j some valuable merchandise, which for i some reason can't be insured. He learns j ths " significant fact" that &n insidious agency is ab work destroying the property of all alike. Instead of sharing mY discovery with the others and taking measures accordingly for mutual protection, he quietly r transfers his ownership, possibly seenriug a i good profit over the exchange. The agency | continues its deadly work. After a time A'a f former companions are left lamenting, and his I sympathy " flows oat in copious tears adown i his weeping countenance." Had A wept | copiously eight jears sooner, verj likely his I tears would have done some good. Now his companions may be excused if they say, "Too late, too late ; you cannot take us in." i We are \o\& that we should ba wise as serpents, but harmless as * dove. Many act on the first part of the injunction, ignoring the last. Are we being driven by the maelstrom of finance to adopt what is said to be' Chicago's version of the golden rule, "Do your neighbour as he would do you if he gets the chance"" ? —I am, &c, A Victim to Bans Kismaxagehent March 24. Elsewhere.