The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1879-03-15
THE DEXTER BANK.

THE DEXTER BANK.
An Abstract of the Statement of Treasurer
Hamilton.
The statement of the Treasurer lof TIE Dex-
ter Savings Bank (referred to in our dispatches
OF yesterday Is an elaborate argument from
the books to show that the late Treasurer Bar
ron was defaulter. The statement begins
at the return made by Mr.. Barron Nov. 8, 1877,
when the actual deposits in the bank, as exhib
tied on the General Deposit Book of that date,
were 1920 3l9.11, just $1,000 larger than is
stated in the return to the Examiner The
trial balance which was made by Mr.. Barron
was certified to by two of the trustees at that
time as correct This trial balance as 1t now
appears makes the loans on collaterals just
$4,000 too high. Mr.. Hamilton says this diff
ference between the trial balance and the re-
turn is the result of an alteration to the amount
of $4,000, both in the liabilities and resources as
stated in the trial balance and 10 the sum total
of each by the careful erasure of certain figures
and the substitution of others. The deposits are
aoao correctly stated but the loans collaterals
are $4,000 too high. The error was not detected by
| the examining trustees bscause their examina.
ton was not rigid and because they relied too
much on Mr.. Barron.
| In Mr. Bolster's report of the examinatio in
1877 he puts the loans or mortgages of real es-
tate at 1892 1916 II 80 that if the ledger is correct
Mr.. Bolster has made this item just $4,000 too
high. The ledger is correct in this particular
now, but was not when Mr.. Bolster examined
it. On page Ga of the ledger is this entry:
/ August, G. B. page 145, $355.00.
Referring to G. B. appears The entry "Aug-
ust 8, A. w. Chaplin $355.OO" Before the
figure something has been erased, and at the
footing of the column there has been an erssure
also. The footing now is $99,021.79, but be-
meath the SO can be seen the figure l which was
not effectually erased, which makes it clear
that the SO was substituted for something as
high as 10O,or Mr.. Hamilton believes 101 (which
would make the sum total $101 ,O2l.79, aad
would make correct footing provided the
figure erased in the loan to Chaplin was 2.
Mr. Hamilton has no doub. that when Mr..
Bolster examined the books the loan to Chaplin
stood on them at 81, 1856, which would make the
loans on mortgages appear to be $92, 1854 just
$4,000 too high.
Tracing along this matter Of loans on merit
cages appear the following:
TRIAL BALANCE BOOK. ON LEDGER ACCT.
Loans on mortgages Loans on mortgages
of real estate. of real estate.
Sept. g.. $685. 1875 20 $93,375 20
20 95552.N 93552.97
f" 20 96,992.97 94,992.97
All the above statements 10 the trial balance
book place the loans on mortgages just $4,000
higher than appears 10 the ledger account. Ev-
cry trial balance shown on the trial balance
book makes the standing of the bank $4,000 bet
ter than the actual reality. The now trial bal
ance on Oct. q stands thus
RESOURCES.
Loans on mortgages Of real estate, S94,170 03
which is correct, agreeing with the ledger with
the exception of $50 (probably clerical error
which ehould have been placed to loans and
colaterals. But at the same time among the
liabilities are "amount due depositors $219,.
663 81" which is $4,000 too low as shown by the
general deposit book still showing the condition
of the bank better by $4,000 than it really wa..
ledger on loan account:
''Dr. Nov. II, G. B., $4,000"
purporting to be posted from cash book &c. b.
No Fpage of sc. B." is referred to as was the
general practice, and on examining the cash
book no such item can be found.
There is absolutely nothing to support
this $4,000 entry on the ledger book.
Thereafter this troublesome $4,000 seems to
have been taken care of by this false entry in
the ledger, and then it as, on Nov. IL. that
the alterations were made in the books. To &C.
complish the adjustment of the $4,000 required
the alteration of $4,000 fourteen times in the
books, leaving five places where the error still
exists, viz: untried balance of loans on mort
cages of real estate Aug II, Sept. g. %, 20,
and deposits Oct a..
THE RESERVE FUND.
The reserve fund was commenced July 1,
1877, by credit to profit and loss, $720.1S, and
charged to this account. Mr.. Hamilton is sat-
isfied that the scheme for bolstering up the
condition of the bank by fictitiously raising the
assets, was first attempted Aug. IL, in prepsra-
ton for the approaching examination of Mr..
Bolster on thu 14th, and was done in connection
with the reserve fund, which was at that date
raised just $2Oe0 viz: from 1920 IS to 1920 80.
The reserve fund appears in the trial balance
as follows:
July2. S72O 1S
GA, 100 10
"2S, 720 Is
Aug. %, 1870 IS
On the ledger, July 1, in'reserve fund ap-
pears 1920 IS. The figure 2 representing
$4,000 is in pencil, the remainder in ink, show
ing concIusively, Mr.. Hamilton thinks, that
the fgur 2e was not made at the time but was
a subsequent addition. The trial balances of
July 2, IA and % show no raising of $4,000 to
correspond. The figures in the reserve fund in
trial balance Aug. II are in the ordinary man
ner in ink with no erasures Mr.. Hamilton
cannot find any fund from which the addition
of $4,000 to the reserve was taken. 1t was to
support the addition that the loans on mort
cages were raised.
THE LEAvITT LOAN.
With regard to the Leavitt loan on which the
loss to the bank was reckoned at from $250O to
$4,000, and to secure the bank from loss on &C.
count of which Treasurer Barron gave his per-
sonal note to the bank, secured by policy on
his life, which was found after his death, Mr..
Hamilton says that the bank never attached
any blame to Mr.. Barron for loss on this loan,
nor ever intimated such thought As gift
to the bank, the officers regarded it as an act of
great magnaninity on the part of Mr. Barron,
but as security for loan they think the policy
subject to much criticism.
The latter part of the statement is an at
tempt to show from the books that there could
hava been but small amount of money in the
safe and drawer on the day of the robbery, and
that therefore not much could have been stolen,
which deals so much in figures that it is impos-
sible to give much of an idea Of it without re-
producing it in full. for which we have not
space.
The statement is signed by the trustees . s
we'll as by tbs treasurer.
sACO AND BIDDEFORD LOCALS.