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Flemington race meets, and w h o was well-known to every race-goer. Mr. Rucker's functions were confined to the cashing of orders, and the issue of Denvent Bank notes. In the same way M r . Skene Craig, another of the original merchants, acted as agent for the Commercial Bank of Neyv South Wales; but the growing importance of the settlement, and the impediments offered to commercial and trading enterprise, to the community in general, and to the Government, through not having a local bank of issue and deposit, could not fail to impress themselves upon the administrator of the Government; and in consequence of his representations to headquarters, the Governor (Sir Richard Bourke) requested the Bank of Australasia to open a branch of that corporation in Melbourne. T h e Governor's offer to convey the bank officials, and their banking paraphernalia, in a Government vessel to Melbourne, and to alfoyv the bank a military sentry until protective arrangements could be made, was accepted, and Mr. David Charteris McArthur, manager of the neyv bank, and hisfinancialbelongings arrived in the revenue cutter " Ranger," after a protracted voyage of six weeks. In those remote times anything like an eligible banking house was not to be found. Mr. McArthur accordingly yvas glad to take up his quarters in a brick two-roomed cottage, 24 feet by 16 feet, at the north side of Little Collins Street, where Messrs. Henty and Co.'s warehouse is now. O f the tyvo rooms one was the "bank," whilst the other constituted the "bank parlor," or "crib." Reanvard was a skillion of two compartments, and here the manager had to make his residence. T h e modern bank manager, w h o retires after the day's toil is over from theflurryof exchanges, discounts, loans or renewals, to the penetralia of his luxurious villa in one of the fashionable suburbs, has a bed of roses, indeed, compared yvith the laughable vicissitudes to which an unconquerable necessity subjected his predecessors. There are some reminiscences connected with Mr. McArthur's Little Collins Street sojourn which, thought over from the standpoint of to-day, appear simply incredible. O p e n robbery by day was not apprehended, but a night " sticking-up " was not beyond the range of probability. T h e cottage-bank stood several feet in from the street line, and was surrounded by a substantial paling fence, the top of which bristled with iron spikes. T w o kennels were erected in the back yard, yvhere, housed by day, was a pair of huge mastiffs. A s night approached these " dogs of war" were let loose, and had free selection over the premises. A soldier sentinel also kept watch and ward over the bank's treasures. Firearms had been brought from Sydney, but they were not wanted, for the precautions taken so impressed the thieving fraternity, that it came to pass that neither dogs, manager, nor bank, were ever poisoned, murdered or pillaged. But though the bank was not troubled by bushrangers and burglars, its good-natured manager was not free from troubles of an irritating kind. That important and necessary domestic institution known to civilization as the general servant, was then in an undeveloped state, and no yvant of bashfulness prevented them from frequently insisting upon m u c h more than their " rights." S o m e of the soldiers forming the military detachment stationed in Melbourne had their wives with them, and Mr. McArthur secured the services of one of the " R e d Coat Sisterhood." O n e morning this lady " help " took " furlough;" she struck work, and declared she was " o n for a holiday," or rather " a booze," with her husband, w h o had a week's leave of absence. T h e manager's remonstrances yvere unavailing; the fair one went on her "outing," and the manager, like Lord Ullin, yvas "left lamenting." T h e bank yvas unbrushed, "the skillion" unswept, the meals uncooked, the bed undressed, the yard uncleansed, and, to the mind methodical, such a state of confusion was a misery. Porters in buttons, or servants in livery, were banking accessaries then unknown. T h e whole managerial staff consisted of Mr. McArthur and an old accountant named Dunbar, a kind of arithmetical fossil, w h o had grown grey in ready-reckoning and column-totting. This veteran had no soul for anything beyond his quill driving, and when asked by his chief to give him a " hand yvith the broom," he screwed up his ancient nose and declined. T h e manager had, therefore, to let things " slide " or help himself, which he did, until the soldier's wife worked off her spree, and returned to duty. T h e bank opened for business on the 28th August, 1838, and prospered for a couple of years, when the back street make-shift was vacated for premises erected specially for the purpose, in Collins Street, next to where the present bank stands. In 1840, the staff consisted of:—Local Directors, Messrs. D. C. McArthur, James Simpson, and W , H . Yaldwyn ; Manager, M r . D. C McArthur; Accountant, Mr. John Dunbar; Sub-Accountant, Mr.