Volume 2 - ElectricCanadian.com

536 HISTORY OF THE BANKsimilar book was adopted at the same time 1for the BranchClearings Account, doing away with the necessity of makinga daily transcript of the entries. On October 16, steps weretaken to separate drafts from money orders in the branchreturns, so that separate accounts might be kept for theseitems in the chief accountant's books, thus facilitating theadjustment of the accounts. The necessity for this changewas largely the result of the close attention which had beengiven for some months previously to increasing the volume ofthe bank's money order business. The rule was laid down atthe same time that all drafts paid at a branch other than thaton which they were drawn must be forwarded as cash items tothe branch drawn on.As will have been learned by a perusal of this history,the bank grew rapidly during the early years of the twentiethcentury, and notwithstanding the separation of drafts frommoney orders, the increase in the number of branches and inthe volume of business made the management of the accountsthrough which these items were passed a very onerous matterfor the head office. It was clear that the system of centralizingentries for these items in one large clearing account for thewhole bank was not capable of coping with the growth of thebank, and had already become very cumbersome. TheDrafts and Money Orders Issued Accounts were most difficultto balance and the labour involved was excessive.Accordinglya circular of November 16, 1908, announced that thebank had decided to revert to the old system of decentralizingthese entries. All drafts or money orders issued on and afterDecember 1, 1908, were to be credited in the books of thebranches to "Drafts Issued" and "Money Orders" Accounts,and the paid items were to be returned to the issuing branch.A few years later the difficulties of centralization began tomake themselves apparent in connection with the workings ofBranch Clearings Account, as was evidenced by an occurrencein February, 1911.'See Head Office circular dated March 21, 1905.In order to avoid the laborious task