The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1899-11-16
Trustees Ask Permission to Resume
Business.
Treas. Stearns' Method
Of Stealing.
He Had an Entirely New Way
Ac cording TO Report.

Before Judge Strout In chambers, ct
II O'Clock yesterday forenoon. appeared
Bank Examiner mbsrlAke and the trus-
tees and treasurer Of the Norway savings
bank to pray for the approval Of the
court of the action Of those officers In
regard to the shortage discovered in the
accounts OF the lAte treasurer, Seward
5. Stearns, and further to receive the
consent of the ooast that the bank may
renew business and be discharged from
further proceeding In the case.
The present expectation Is that the
bank will open Its doors for business BY
Saturday.
The reports filed today show that this
discrepancy is tl7, 382.27. The reports
further show that all but three OF the
sureties on the bond Of the late trsasur-
or have paid In the assessments made on
them and that These will probably do %
even though the bond 10 missing-prob-
ably destroyed. Therefore. whom all 10
wound up it ia confidently expected that
the loss to the bank from the whols
thing will be less than 5000 or oonsid-
srably less than II per cent on the total
deposits.
For in making the examination the
officers have found the day and the actu-
al amount to . cent Of all Treasurer
SteArns's illegitimate transactions.
The major part covers period OF i've
years, while he has been treasurer, though
while he was clerk for the former trsasur-
er he secured something over 5000 from
the banks funds.
Whom Treasurer Stearns took money
from the bank he appropriated deposits
as they came In. He put the money In
his pocket and did not enter the sum on
the cash book. But on the deposit book
and on the ledger he made the proper en-
try. As he couIdn't be in the bank ut all
times this methods Of keeping the ledger
and deposit books straight prevented
the discovery Of the wrong doing. In case
some dspositor came along while he was
away.
Now comparison OF the ledger footinGs
with the cash would have shown that
the discrepancy existed. In NO bank In
the State has this duty Of auditing been
more carefully attended to by the trus-
tees or more sorupulously than at the
Norway institution.
The bank examiner IL wholly relieved
from this duty Of auditing ledger no.
counts.
The lsgi stature. appreciating the fact
that 1t would be impossible for the bank
ing department. in the time that could
be given to the exainination Of any one
institution in the state, to 60 ever. bal
ance, draw OF and foot the individual
ledger aooouBts in q savings bank. made
law requiring the trustses Of each
bank to do this once at least each year
and report the result, under oath, to the
bank examiner. When We remember
that there are over Ito, 900 such accounts
on the ledgers Of the various saving banks
In the state 1t can readily be ssen that
this Is necessary pr, vision of law.
OF this examination BY the trustees Of
the Norway bank, Mr.. Timbsrlake says
with great earnestness;
Gin justice to the trustees Of this in
stitution wish to say that they had
complied with this provision Of the statute
az fully and carefully AZ the trustees Of any
other institution in the state. Had I
been called upon to examine and pass
upon the details Of their work should
not have hesitated TO say that they had
used every precautien men Of ordinary
prudence would uss. The methods
adopted for oonoesling the difference be-
tween this footing OF the individual &C.
oounts and the balance sheet undoubted-
ly anticipated just such an examination
by the trustees, and was such as to mis-
lead them even though they exercised
unusual care In doing this work. Had
have audited the accounts In the same
way they did I should have felt conf
dent that my work was correct and that
1t showed Q true footing Of the deposits