Volume 2 - ElectricCanadian.com

484 HISTORY OF THE BANKbank.The principal reason for this was that land and buildings,particularly those suitable for occupation by a bank,could not be considered as desirable assets for a young institution,because they cannot readily be rendered available tomeet its liabilities. In addition, all the offices of the bank,except those in Montreal and New York, were at this periodconfined to Ontario, and a building erected about this time inan Ontario town was in danger of being left stranded by theshifting of business to a new local centre. Many of thebuildings which the bank did own had come into its hands asa result of seemingly inevitable circumstances, or of anopportunity to make a favourable purchase which couldhardly be passed by. As an instance may be cited theHamilton office, which was acquired as a result of the purchaseof the business of the Gore Bank in 1869. Thebuilding had been used for many years as the head office ofthe latter bank, and has ever since housed the branch of TheCanadian Bank of Commerce in Hamilton. As a rule,however, the policy of renting premises was carefully adheredto in all the smaller places, in spite of certain drawbacks,which became more noticeable as time went on. The longlease necessary to ensure a reasonable rental often preventedan advantageous change in location as a town grew and itsbusiness centre shifted,while a short one meant undesirablechanges, or almost invariably, a heavy increase in rent as thebusiness of the branch developed. It also became more andmore necessary, as competition increased and the bank grew,to ensure that the bank's premises should present an attractiveappearance, and this required the expenditure of considerablesums of money for which the bank could have little assuranceof reaping an adequate return. There followed an attempt tosolve the problem by arranging with local customers orcapitalists to erect buildings for its occupation from planseither prepared by its own architects or approved by them.These buildings proved highly satisfactory in every respect,save that the bank was still a tenant, and the improvements