Volume 2 - ElectricCanadian.com

516 HISTORY OF THE BANKlosses during the earlier years being as a rule trivial in amount.By the end of the fifth year, when the contributions of thebank ceased, it amounted to over $41,000. The next year thefirst large loss occurred, which prevented any increase duringthat year. It was succeeded by a series of years almostfor theentirely free from losses, and in 1894, when the planestablishment of a Pension Fund reached fruition, it becamepossible to transfer the handsome sum of $100,000 from theOfficers' Guarantee Fund as the nucleus of the new fund.Eleven years later, when the workings of the new PensionFund had been actuarially examined and it proved necessaryto provide somewhat more generously for its obligationsthan had been anticipated at the outset, a considerable sumwas found to be available each year from the Guarantee Fund.Notwithstanding this, the older fund has grown and prosperedand it is confidently hoped that it will continue to aid in thework of providing additional benefits for old and disabledmembers of the staff and their families. Although the fund isentirely under the control of the Board of Directors of the bank,it has never been regarded as the private property of the bank,but any surplus in it has been looked upon as a trust to beadministered for the benefit of the staff.At the outset of the fund one of the auditors was supposedto represent the bank and the other the members of the staff.The distinction was only a nominal one and has been lost sightof in later years.