CHAPTER XXIV.
THE RIVER YARRA: ITS FALLS, PUNTS, BRIDGES, AND NAVIGATION.
SYNOPSIS:— Circulating Medium. —"Paper" Money at a Discount. —Gold only Legal Tender. —Batman as a Money Lender. —Cent. per Cent. —Mr. W. F. A. Rucker's Agency. —Mr. Isaac Hind. —Mr. Skene Craig. —Bank of Australasia. —Mr. D. C. McArthur, its First Manager. —Mr. McArthur's Mastiffs. —"The Dogs of War." —Mr. McArthur's Early Domestic Troubles. —The Bank's Staff in 1840. —Discount and Interest. —Mr. McArthur's Superannuation and Death. —Union Bank of Australia—Mr. William Highett, First Manager. —His Objection to McArthur's Bull-Dogs. —Attempted Burglary. —The Bank's Staff in 1840. —Mr. Highett as M.L.C. —His Retirement and Death. —Mr. T. E. Boyd, his Successor. —Mr. William Fletcher Succeeds to the Management. —The Bank's Progress in Forty Years. —The Port Phillip Bank. —Its Projectors. —The First Directory. —Mr. John Gardiner, Managing Director. —His Mission to London. —Mr. G. D. Mercer, his Successor. —The Bank's Staff in 1840. —The Bank's Collapse in 1842. —Its Final Dividend in 1851. —Mr. J. P. Fawkner's Attempt at Bank Making. —The Tradesmen's Bank a Failure. —The Bank of New South Wales. —Mr. C. S. Vallack, First Manager. —The Bank of Victoria. —Dr. Thomas Black, its Originator. —Its Early Career and Future Prosperity. —Mr. Matheson, its First and Only Manager. —The Colonial Bank. —The First Savings Bank. —Its First Trustees and Officers. —Mr. James Smith, its First Manager. —His Retirement and Death. —"Our Uncles and our Aunts." —The Origin of Pawnbroking. —The "Three Ball" Symbol. —Mrs. Anne Willis, the First Pawnbroker. —Old Melbourne Loyalty. —King William IV. —Anniversary of his Birthday. —Queen Victoria's Marriage. —Address of Congratulation. —Birth of the Prince of Wales. —Address to the Queen. —A Prayer for the Queen. —A Birth-night Ball.
THE origin of our present extensive and elaborate system of banking, reveals some curious and laughable incidents. At first there was no regular monetary system-no recognised circulating medium, unless the circulation of "orders" could be termed one. Payments were made by orders drawn upon Launceston, Hobart Town, or Sydney; and the only mode by which ready cash could be obtained, was by Van Diemen's Land and New South Wales commercial agencies in Melbourne. The cashing of settlers' paper became a source of considerable profit, as a heavy discount was charged for the pecuniary accommodation. The Government refused to accept bills, orders, or cheques in payment for land purchases-nothing but gold or other legal tender down on the nail. Batman, who, like Fawkner, could turn his hand to many things, added to his storekeeping the offshoot of "broker and money-lender;" and well he knew how to make his borrowing constituents pay through the nose, or rather the pocket, for obligations rendered. His terms were, for a £20 loan for six months, a repayment of £30, or 100 per cent. per annum—to which must be added his store profits upon one-half the loan; for the custom obtained with him that the advance made was to be "half cash and half goods." Mr. W. F. A. Rucker, much to Batman's disgust, soon underbid him, for he offered to do loans, half goods and half cash, at the rate of 30 per cent. per annum.
This mode of freetrading annoyed Batman, who vowed vengeance on Rucker, and Batman, as a first instalment of his ire, run up at the next Government land sale a certain half-acre allotment in Collins Street which Rucker wished to secure on moderate terms to £90, a figure then much above the average. During this state of matters the proprietary of the Derwent Bank at Hobart Town decided upon opening an agency in Melbourne, and Mr. Rucker was local agent.
On the 8th February, 1838, the agency commenced business at the corner of Queen and Collins Streets (where the Union Bank was afterwards erected), and subsequently transferred to a kind of sentry-box or stall in Little Flinders Street, near the corner of Market Street, and close to a new store put up by Rucker.
It may be worth noting that the Derwent Bank Agency cashier was the well-known octogenarian, Mr. Isaac Hind, who died about 1880, after officiating for nearly forty years as weigh-master at the
