OUR MELBOURNE LETTER.

Otago Witness, Issue 956, 16 May 1889, Page 12

OUR MELBOURNE LETTER.

(Feom Oue Own Cobbespondent.) . ( Melbourne, May 1. DEFAULTING BANK CLERKS.; The defaulting bank clerk is, the outcome of the' collapse of the boom, and he has bulked largely in public view recently. On the' night before the Christmas' holidays began a suburban teller named Allpress put £7000 into his pocket instead of into the safe, and when the holidays were over he had flown. He has never been heard of since. His example has just been followed by. another individual holding a like position named Hornbuckle. On Good, Friday eve he stole £2200, by the same simple process ; and as ' he had till the following Wednesday morning to quit his accustomed haunts, it need hardly be said that at present his whereabouts is as great a, mystery as that of Allpress— of whom, by the way, he was, a schoolmate. The money stolen in both instances was that taken over the counter,' so that it included notes of all banks, and their* numbers were not known, which renders them the more easily disposed of. THE QUESTION OF SALARIES. These stealings raise the question of salaries. I Mr Justice Williams, when he sentenced one of these defaulters at Ballarat recently, opened out on that question, and drew a picture of greedy directors squeezing their olerks down to starvation wages in order to earn dividends for the shareholders. "I would sooner," he Baid, " send a son of mine to break stones on the roads than put him into a bank." But it appears that the judge .drew his picture from imagination. A press reporter has been interviewing bank managers on the subject. The clerks get £70 a year when they join as boys', and when they have passed five years in the service draw £120. Ledgerkeepers get from £140 to £200 a year, and, tellers from £220 to £500. In one bank which allowed its books to be examined the lowest salary was £165 a year, whist the majority drew from £220 to £280. It may be admitted that a young man whose salary is only £140 a year has no large margin after expenses are paid. The best answer to the ladies' query \ Why don't the men propose ,?, may be to name his salary. Bank clerks "are very impressionable mortals where young ladies are I 'concerned, but on £140 a year they mast falter when they think of matrimony.- Still these are the youngest on the list. The teller who is receiving from £200 to £300, which appears to be the rule t is not on "starvation wage." There is, no occasion 'for him; to steal to buy bread for his family, ; Indeed, \in spite of his Honor the this i? fuj excuse that is never made. , The b«nk olerks who steal' generally need money tQ toyer^gambling debts ; or, If they, are Bleloon^ne yonjofmefa, stock &•

1 change losses. < ■ Xhie starving children are aU i fetched fictidn. J <! ' J ; And in any 'case ' they cannot be the exoj where such men as civil servants who have t3 i a quarter of a century in the public employe^ k are concerned: Yet these men are not pt<9 . agaiDst temptation, though their salary in scj| , cases has ran up to £500 a year and more. }S , frauds by Butler, who manipulated stamps] ■ insurance companies' licenses some time tm I, and who is now in Pentridge, is » case, in pniM , and only yesterday another .civil servant was 3 ■ .rested for. embezzlement. Be was the 9 t countant and, pay clerk in the Grown J [ offices, named William Henry Agg. He ijl ! married man with a family of two childJ I whom he certainly should have kept' from d i vatjon's door.on *500(j|year. The faotisfl the accursed boom — if the adjective if not fl strong— is at the bottom of the trouble. 'M , stories and rumoursTrtoo many of them ijj i turned put ,to be rumours— ;of. fortunes made ; sudden jumps, on the sh^re market and in Ii , speculations were too apt to unhinge the baits of weak minds. A year's salary to be made fc 1 day was a prospeot npjb v; t'p . be l witfwtood, 0 fatal plunge on ' Change, and the mischief* done, Pentridge ,' followed , in ', due course* leasfcj in many instances, for it is questiooi) whether for every case which has come in court there have not been twtf or three in *$ , the purses of relatives came to the rescue v staved off public disgrace. ,' Few, however, ho been' so lucky \ as Mr Henry J. MouriS This young man, who was seoretary ' the Hydraulic Trust Company, nnderws arrest on warrant and' made his bow before Police Court audience. His friends, howen came to the rescue to the tune of somethifl like £2tKX). The' police magistrate was gram! assured that the supposed stealing was metal & case of holding over money j there was nod} honest intention ; the deficiency had all la» repaid ; and, Mr Mouritz is, a free maa, Then is certainly a flavour, of felony compound about such a case. THE FEDERAL STOCK EXCHANGB. The fatal facility with which shares b gone down since ths boom, is welljillustratedi the case of the Federal Stock Exchange. Hj was a concern floated at the height' of theng excitement, to enable stock dealers to indai in, business without the, intervention of (U broker. To use the language of theprospeottsifl was to afford "a direct and inexpensive method A bringing buyer and seller together on an exeka where business can be transacted with ord« seourity/and promptitude." Critically examine! these words -do not seem to stand for mad they are delightfully vao,ue.; but, no onem critical in those excited times. It was a pabi company; that was enough. The jhares,pii up to 10s, actually rose in about a week to fl To-day yon can buy them for Is. The ahn holders met to have a statement of losses p» sentedto them' the other day. The balaw sheet disclosed the fact that the expensee fo the/half-year came to £2488, while the receipt amounted to £808, including £478 received b rent of offices in the , exchange buUdiaj The ' most interesting feature - of 1M balance sheet was that while thecejß change' had' only made £120 in commi^M on sales during the , half 1 "year, . the direfl tors received £125 in fees for managing the l» stitution, and the officers £415 for looking tAum its books and accounts. It appeared from tfl balance sheet that by some mistake more thß the 20,000 shares offered,,, to the public tciß allotted, and the directors had to expend {$B in purchasing shares to supply that over Mm ment, and thereby reotify the error, and tbtiß through accepting the cheque of the 'buyer tw giving the company's cheque to the seller, nUH had to be honoured,, or by some other meuS the exchange lost in one week £185 17s iW It is no wonder that there was muofr disorder™ the.. meeting, which eventually had to be 4B journed because ( the shareholders could idß agree about the election 'of, . directors. Itm marvel is that directors, were needed at tll,!w a public company .which can earn only £125 « half year might be thought to; require thehimß despatch of winding up. t , , , m THE FISK JU3IUGB SIKGBBB. B The Fisk 'Jubilee Singers have beeninciiiß ence this week, and done a little f* waBhiog H a| the public courts. Mr Price, the advance agttffl sued Mr Loudin, the manager of the troupduß as it turned out, its proprietor, for some MB , which he asserted he had been under! paid, ffljw Mr Loudin, whose deep bass voice your reulaß have no doubt listened to with pleasure, speolß very unhappy hour in the .witneee box under taß hands (and tongue) of Mr Purvey the keeiw oross-examiner in Australia. ■ Mr Loudin, it nB discovered, ran the troupe entirely as a buiinoH speculation on his own account. Thfrimpreakß however, which was carefully fostered by bolB: Mr Loudin and his advance agent, Mr Price, «B that the speculation was a joint sto'dk onejlliß the negro hymn-singers, after having spent yetiß in singing to establish a negro university iciiH the States, were making, a tour < to recoup tbt»B selves for all their . toil. As Judge WillumH summed it up after hearing the evidence) tMB was the natural impression from what had b*Bi said, and if that was the. impression it wu»B' wonder that the " goody-goody people " flocblH to fill the pockets of these unselfish toilers. lw they had known that these . "emanoip^B slaves" were being run, as it was called™; Loudin, as a private, speculation to fill hisoflß: pocket ; that he was to posket all the profit^ W; private speculation, was it likely that all &B; dignitaries of the religions denominations ffOoUB have gone as they did to' the concerts? H^B they known it was a private 'speculation itwowß probably have cooled the enthusiasm of tio«B> people who went to make the affair a BUoee*B The story that the singers wer6 ''emanoipitcK slaves " also was very largely,, a fiction, for mm were only children ("kids" was Judge Williwwß; expression) about three years, old when titß emancipation took place, and precious li^B slavery, therefore, they ever saw. <fiut MrPD"B; and Mr Loudin between < them* worked ti*B " goody-goody " element so neatly 'tfiat the tow was a, very big financial' 3uccesf. ( , Jnf Melboorow whatever happened elsewhere, . tlfc " emW»B; pated slaves" were in : clover They invited to Toorak mansiocs, . and even mi, Government House,: and the To^n'Hall, wr&w tpMr Loudin's horror Mr Price Engaged, «# filled with overwhelming audjences/ who, bfl«i<3»: paying well toenter, bought theFisk Uoiver^w >ook at a considerable advance omHome P n '^B« The total result of Mr Loudin's singing and «•:'; Price's good management is that Mr LoadisV^ who landed worth abont • £3000, is do*.' able to admit that he possesses ilSfflwt The peari 1 of great price, tlje adv«B«; agent, seems at last to have persuaded himMVt that the joint stock fiction was the actual le^JWl at any rate he seems to have envied the de^K* voiced Loudin his increase of wealth, and heo(B| .his appeal to judge and jury. 5 .But Mr £° a TO§ had not left him a leg to stand !upon, and vmm jury decreed, against 'film. ] Mr Price succeedjw in nothing except; in exposing Mr Loudin, w«f| can afford, however, to laugh aa heartily ft| private life as he did in one of his nflfed 8ong8» mm he had, played ;upori thesympathdtic Auatrali^g public t^ ( capita^ tune.^ '! Btrfpp% away all vjm religion,., romance,, and ripoetiry," «aid J<^K WHliama, "the Fisk Jubilee Singers' tourwtfffi hard and clever a commercial trannwtion UK