304 A HISTORY OF THE COLONY OF VICTORIA 



attention to the scheme, but the announcement served to feed the 

 flame in the Colonies. In May, 1890, " The Imperial Colonial Fin- 

 ance and Agency Company," with 1,000,000 of capital, was reported 

 as floated in London, with the Marquis of Lome as chairman, and 

 Sir Hercules Eobinson, ex-Governor of New South Wales, Lord 

 Eustace Cecil, and other distinguished people on its Board. In 

 October of the same year the prospectus was issued of the " United 

 Australian Bank," with a proposed capital of 2,000,000, and a 

 very strong mercantile Board, under the chairmanship of Mr. Arthur 

 Magniac of Matheson & Co. Australia was not destined to have 

 the handling of these millions, for two months after the last-named 

 project was put forward the great financial crisis which brought 

 down Baring Bros, smote the world's money market and tempor- 

 arily stayed the hands of the promoter. 



When the associated banks made the stand, already referred to, 

 against speculative land advances, an outburst of feverish activity 

 in the collection of English deposits set in. The larger building 

 societies had agents not only in London, but throughout Scotland 

 and Ireland, and raked in considerable sums. The outside banking 

 and land mortgage companies which opened offices in London made 

 no pretence of forming a business directorate. Thus the " Federal 

 Bank of Australia " secured for its first chairman Sir Henry Barkly, 

 an ex-Governor of Victoria, and associated with him Sir Andrew 

 Clarke, Acting Agent-General of the colony. The " Mercantile Bank 

 of Australia " was presided over by Sir Graham Berry, while Agent- 

 General in London, and he also figured as a Director of the "Free- 

 hold Investment and Banking Company " in association with an 

 ex- manager of one of the leading Australian banks. When all 

 these three institutions went into liquidation, and the depositors 

 received exceedingly meagre dividends, they were not without some 

 grounds for the complaint that they had been cajoled into a sense 

 of security by such a display of ex-Governors, ex-Premiers, and 

 distinguished representatives of the colony's business interests. 

 They were not unmindful that Sir Graham Berry at the time he 

 was receiving their deposits was pressing on the Imperial Govern- 

 ment the passage of a Bill to authorise the investment of trust funds 

 in colonial securities, because of their undoubted character. They 



