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purposes, and while conducted with moderately conservative man- 

 agement had been helpful and desirable. The same cannot be said 

 for the swarm of land-jobbing, financial and mortgage agencies and 

 property investment companies, which, by the misleading use of the 

 word bank in their titles, made a large haul of borrowed wealth, 

 and upset all business calculations by their prodigal expenditure of 

 it. Melbourne in 1887 contained, in addition to the ten banks of 

 issue associated in the Government business, branches of three 

 important banks whose headquarters were in other Colonies, and 

 two local banks that were not members of the Clearing House. At 

 that date they held amongst them deposits to the amount of 

 35,000,000, the whole of which and something more had been 

 lent out in business advances. In the aggregate these institutions 

 had behind their local deposits enormous resources in capital, re- 

 serves, and the command of deposits in London and elsewhere. 

 Hence there could be no question of their ability to do all that 

 could be reasonably asked of them to support their customers. It 

 was not any churlish conservatism of the regular bankers that called 

 the scores of rashly speculative competitors into existence. It was 

 the demand which the plungers of the new school of finance made 

 for institutions that would take all the risk, and ask for no share in 

 their desperately snatched profits. And the temper of the times 

 made their creation easy. In 1884 it was not difficult to grasp the 

 nature and even the respective positions of the financial institutions 

 of Melbourne. By the middle of 1888 the increase had been so 

 great in number, the variation in objects and methods so rapid, and 

 even the changes in name so frequent, that steady business men 

 trudging in the old grooves were unable to keep definitive know- 

 ledge of the invaders. During the last-named year there were 

 quoted on the Melbourne Stock Exchange, under the head of 

 " Banking and Financial Institutions," no less than twenty-eight 

 of these outsiders, of which fourteen called themselves "Banks". 

 Their aggregate subscribed capital was advertised at over 24,000,000, 

 about 7,000,000 of which was alleged to be paid up. In addition 

 to these there were twenty-two " Land and Investment Companies " 

 with something over 1,000,000 sterling paid up. Of the twenty- 

 eight banking and finance companies only two passed through 



