Evening star., 1909-08-29
MONEY AWAITS CLAIMANTS
FACTS ABOUT UNCLAIMED
TREASURE IN BANKS.
Estimate Of Enormous Balances
Without Known Owners-Pro-
posed They Be Confiscated.
From London Answers.

From London Answers
Fifty millions of unclaimed deposits in
the Golfers of banks Such was the amaz-
ing total arrived at a few years ago by
the Edinburgh Merchants Company.
which petitioned parliament with the same
object as bill recently introduced in the
house Of commons-that all s1ch balances
shall be confiscated by the state.
Whether the estimate is fairly accurate
it is impossible to say. because bankers
make no returns of unclaimed funds in
their possession and refuse to give any in
formation on the subject. But banks un-
questionably hold enormous sums for
which no owners are forthcoming.
An indirect proof of this is that savings
banks. which are obliged to publish their
accounts, invariably acknowledge having
some dormant and unclaimed balances.
Only few months since one made spe-
cial effort to discover the owners of a
number of such accounts, but. though it
found the people entitled to f5.1z2. it was
unable to trace the owners Of deposits
aggregating f5,12i.
Orphaned Thousands.
Further evidence to the same purport is
supplied on the occasion of a bank fall
ure. When the Western Bank of Scot
were unclaimed, and twenty years after
ward there remained oWnerless E10,3
In connection with the liquidation of the
City of Glasgow Bank again no claims
were lodged in respect of Ed, 143, and
though subsequently some of the money
was claimed the Assets Company not long
since had thousands of pounds for which
owners could not be found.
Look. too, at the special manner in
which the Old Lady of Threadneedle
Street deals with dormant balances of
long standing. She invests them, and
the interest which accrues is sufficient to
pension the widows of her deceased clerks
Besides such testimony as this, there
are many isolated incidents which go to
show that if the banks were made to dis
gorge the money to which they have no
right the Tightening grip of taxation
might be promptly relaxed.
mysterious account stands in an alias
of a maiden lady. After she had been a
customer at certain joint stock bank for
some years she opened second account
in an assumed name-a practice which is
constantly adding to unclaimed boards in
banks-and paid into lump sum of
97,5OO Subsequently her original account
was frequently dealt with. but the other
she never touched. After her death her
executors withdrew the balance of the
first account. About the G7,5O0, however,
they said nothing-nor did the bank
For business reasons a French gentle
man once WlShed to communicate with a
certain English lady and wrote to her
London agents. who, on making inquiries,
discovered that she had died in lunattic
asylum. Her affairs were then investi-
gated, with the result that solicitor re-
covered from a bank an account in her
name which had been dormant for some
time.
Dis-Baking.
A Dublin bank once issued a list of un-
claimed property In its possession. Here
are two suggestive items from it:
"Box containing number of silver arti-
cles, coins, medals and seals. and having
on 1t a crest and the name e. S. Cooper
BOX containing diamonds and articles
OF jeweiry lodged by DR.. Andrew Blake
and George Jennings on December %,
1895"
There are many similar boards in Irish
banks. numbers of which have remained
in them since the rebellion. Some years
ago an Irish peer, when in Melbourne
heard in romantic circumstances that a
quantity of plate had been deposited in
a Dublin bank by one of his ancestors at
the beginning of the nineteenth century
and that there it still remained The
bank. on his communicating with it, at
once admitted his claim and delivered up
the treasure