Facsimile PDF - Online Library of Liberty

322 ME TffOD.7 OF SOCZAL REFOR72.
oEcc thief could possibly venturo to negotiate cheques, which
arc, T believe, regularly treated as cc~luffcr,” or dangerous
stuff, It is, indeed, a serious qnestion for bnnkers, how they
are to meot tlw trouble ariging from any great multiplication
of .mall cheques. But in any case I do not see how they nre
to avoid thcso srnall trans;Lctions, even if they desire it.
Cheque Brink cheques are, I imagine, less t,ronblesorne than
postal mnnc1y orders, which lxmkcrs already collect in large
numbcw for their customcrq. As to the propo,sed small
shilling and l~xlf-cr(-~n-n notes, it seen13 to mc that they will
give infirlitc. trtttitJ1c t o lxtukcr?, wllo must 11(Jt only sort and
cr~~~nt tl~cm like tllc sll1:tllc.t frnctionnl currency, bot Inust
cxatniuo tllc d:ttw, to cnsurc t.h:tt tttcy are not running lxgond
tho tllrcc montlts’ interval of free carrcncy. ’1’Ile Po5t Office
clen~-lr intend, if possible, to ol~ligc the bankers to receive
theso stnxll notes, juilging from the regulations about crossing.
If, indeed, tho bankcrs unanimously refuac to receive such
notra, the scl~cn~o must, I think, fall to the ground, even though
l’nrlinment should sanction it.
Thc general conclusion, then, to which I am forced to come
is, tllnt this scheme of postal notas is a mistaken one,which
~I~ould never have bcen allowed to come forth under Mr.
Famcctt’s name. It is neither fish nor flesh; neither n well
regulated paper currency, ~101’ n safe system of banking payments.
Tt is the schonc of n tcnacions and aggressive bztreaw
to underbid tho Cheque Bank, and by setting at nought all the
customary risks of monetary transactions, to secure the disposnl
of lnrgc funk, while throwing much of the trouble and
cost upon the banking community. In the conveyance of
parcels and small goods thc Poat Office has yet mnch to do,
as I have taken trouble to prove; but in the direction of
banking, it hns already reached a limit which it cannot be
safely allowed to pass.
POSTSCRIPT.
Since the above was in type, it has been stated that the
Government mill propose to amend the Bill by restrictring the