, 1873-01-18

COuOCln1 II UOU ILLS fOLC, Uut Inc UluerGDC6
of'opinion which prevailed at the meeting,
as to whether the Members and Trustees
have a right, by the Constitution of the
Bank, to vote away, for charitable or
other purposes, the Surplus Fund of the
Institution. 1t is plain that " A Deposi-
tor is inclined to deny that righG and
yet he says in another part-besides admit
ting the legality of other charitable dlspo-
sitions on a former occasion-that " an old
and faithful servant could very we'll be
presented with $780," and that too at a
time when these presents and grants
amounted to a considerable portion of the
Surplus Fund. He defends that action of
the then Members on the plea that it is
nothing unusual for Bank Directors to tes-
tify their appreciation Of services rem
dered by their employees, to make
them presents in the form of bonuses, gra-
tuitieS, etc. He thus draws a parallel be-
tween Bank Directors and the Members of
the Savings Bank. If this be correct,
which in my opinion it is, it follows that
the Members have the direction and man
agement of the Bank. By "a Depositor's"
own showing, the meeting, in voting the
aforementioned amount, has then done
merely what it had a perfect right to do,
a fact Of which all Depositors are aware,
and why should they not then continue to
have "peJect ~cogfdence" in the manage
ment of it, especially when we know that
that management has secured to the insti-
tuition a Surplus Fund of about $4,000,
out Of which ga small maioritY,' on the
occasion of a great calamity in the Mother
country, which excited the greatest SYM
pathy here, voted that a 140th part should
be given to the sufferers. Is there in this
vote any good reason for depositors to
view with feelings of alarm the tendency of
certain parties to m%onopolize all control
over the Surplus Fund.-" or have other
{" events transpired" of a nature to DESTROY
the confidence Of Depositors? l have en-
quired all around, but [ can find nothing
else. GA Depositor' perhaps knows, but
shrinks from " the dangerous and improper
habit of bringing in personal attacks upon
Individuals" and therefore gives in his
vote of want Of confidence in all those
members who happen to differ from him
in opinion.
AS far as l have learnt, it is gene
rally agreed that the magnitude of
the Reserve Fund should be fixed by the
next meeting, which I believe will soon
be held, and then the question will proba-
bly, rise whether the present rate of interest
should be raised or not. If that is not
done, which many are against, then, as
there is a yearly increase of the Surplus,
with the present rate of interest, it is evil
dent that the Bank will be in possession Of
a fund for which no provision is made.
To say that the members should not have
the disposal of that fund, would, in my
humble opinion, be an ~absurdity, before
another authority is appointed invested
with the right of disposal. And here
even, the action of the members is
required to confer that right, SO that
"A Deposition" is vainIy endeavouring
to get away from the Members. The
present members may consider it an
insult to future members to deprive them
of a right which has hitherto lin the opini-
on of A Depositor'', with one excep-
ton in the " recent transactions,' what
ever they may beg been exercised with
discretion. Whether the next meeting
will appoint a committee or not, | leave
to the Members, and to the lawyers among
them all the lawyer-points, and hoping
for the interest of the institution that the
proceedings of the next meeting will be