1 64 A COLONIAL AUTOCRACY. 



The charter apparently remained in force although it had 

 been declared null and void. 1 Bigge considered the bank a 

 beneficial institution, but that no royal charter was necessary. 

 Without it indeed he thought a more cautious policy would be 

 ensured. 



A curious incident had arisen when the Articles of Incorpora- 

 tion were drawn up and put before a meeting of the share- 

 holders, which was described by Wylde in his evidence to 

 Bigge. The Governor was dissatisfied with the 7th article, 

 which excluded persons who had been convicts from the direc- 

 tion of the bank. " But," said Wylde " had an ex -convict been 

 appointed (and it was known that one would be proposed) all 

 the other directors would have resigned." Wylde saw what was 

 the feeling of the meeting, and proposed and carried the exclu- 

 sion clause. When he waited upon the Governor later to sub- 

 mit the articles to him, he found that this affair had already 

 been reported, with the result that it had " excited in him a 

 strong opinion and feeling insomuch that I retired from all ex- 

 planation." 2 



The New South Wales Bank was nevertheless largely patron- 

 ised by the convict and ex-convict class. They much pre- 

 ferred its facilities to those of the Savings Bank, which gave a 

 lower interest and from which it was troublesome to draw money 

 at short notice. 3 The Savings Bank was founded by the exer- 

 tions of Mr. Justice Field in June, 1819, for the benefit of con- 

 victs and the poor people generally ; and its rules, prefixed by 

 " A Plain Address," were printed and distributed to all convicts 

 arriving in the Colony. 



" Many of you," so ran the address, " bring small sums of 

 money from England, your own savings or the bounty of your 

 friends, and have no place of safe deposit for them upon landing 

 in this Colony. Instead of trusting those sums to any private 

 individual, you are recommended to place them in the Public 

 Savings Bank ". . . . The convicts, however, responded feebly 

 to this invitation. They preferred to trust to some friend who 

 knew of an investment which promised quick though uncertain 



1 This seems the only inference to be drawn from the statement of Bigge in 

 1823 that the "present " charter will expire in 1824. Report, III. 

 a Wylde's Evidence, Appendix, Bigge's Reports. R.O., MS. 

 3 Interest in Savings Bank was is. 6d. per 1. 



