Volume 2 - ElectricCanadian.com

428 HISTORY OF THE BANKon demand, the holders were entitled to receive intereston the debt at the rate of twelve per cent, per annum untilpaid. Neither the Chief Justice nor any associate judge ofthe Supreme Court might hold stock in the bank, or be otherwiseinterested in it. After being the subject of several warmdebates in the legislature, the bill failed to pass. Publicopinion was fearful of the undue influence which the bankmight possibly exercise, especially under the monopoly proposedby the bill. As in the case of the Bank of Montreal,the chief promoters, therefore, resolved to bring the bankinto existence as a private corporation. This was accomplishedin September of the same year, when the Halifax1Banking Company, operating under a partnership agreement,opened its doors for business as the first bank to be establishedin Nova Scotia. As the agreement provided for a very limitedpartnership, its terms were comparatively simple, detailsbeing left to the rules and regulations to be adopted by thepartners, which might be adjusted to meet the requirementsof experience. It is in the bill, therefore, as brought beforethe Assembly, rather than in the partnership agreement, thatthe conception of the principles of banking held by the promotersof the first bank in Halifax is to be found. Theseprinciples were, on the whole, faithfully followed by theHalifax Banking Company in its operations.It is to be observed that in the list of rights and privilegesto be enjoyed by both the Bank of New Brunswick and theproposed Halifax Bank, there is a fuller recognition of the truefunction of a bank, namely, to promote industry and commerce,than was found at this early period in the provinces of oldCanada.The first bank to receive a legislative charter in theof Nova Scotia was the Bank of Nova Scotia. Itsprovincecharter 2 followed the lines of the Bank of New Brunswick evenmore closely than did the bill for establishing the Halifax'See Vol. I, p. 432.2 Win. IV, N.S., 1832, c. i.