Volume 2 - ElectricCanadian.com

450 HISTORY OF THE BANKwith the bankers in Ottawa on March 18, 1880, indicated thatthe Government desired that any new legislation on the subjectof banking should provide further safeguards for the currency,and that an additional part of the profit on the notecirculation should inure to the country as represented by theGovernment. At a subsequent meeting held by the bankers,on motion of Mr. George Hague, general manager of theMerchants Bank of Canada, it was decided to suggest to theMinister that the notes of the banks should constitute a firstcharge on the assets of the issuing bank in the event of windingup or insolvency, and also that the lowest denomination to beissued by any bank should be five dollars. The bankers werethat the Government shouldunwilling to concede the principleshare in the profit to be derived from the note circulation,being of the opinion that the country derived a large incidentalprofit therefrom in the shape of lower rates of interest, butmade their proposals in an endeavour to harmonize the viewsas to causeof the Government with their own in such a waythe least possible disturbance to the commercial intereststhe country. They further stated their desire for a renewalof the charters for a period longer than ten years, on accountof the inexpediency of frequent changes in the legislation affectingbanking. At a meeting held the following day the Ministerof Finance mentioned some further points in connection withthe proposed measure regarding which he desired to learn theviews of the bankers. Thefmost important of these were thequestion of government inspection of banks, the advisabilityof permitting loans to be made on the security of bank andother stocks, 1 and the duration of proxies. The bankers suggestedthat the English practice of requiring the shareholdersto appoint auditors at their annual meetings should beadopted, that the banks should have power to lend on allstocks and bonds except bank stocks, and that the duration ofof'The power to lend on bank stocks had been taken away by an Act passed theprevious year (42 Viet., 1879, c. xlv.), which amended the Bank Act of 1871 in thisrespect and also provided for the numbering of bank shares hereafter referred to.