The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

4 w w $ 4# ‘l n niversary ank of Montreal n A B Taiken from an old silhoueiltc, dle reproduction above is â€"of Robâ€" ert ‘Griffin, the Bank of Montâ€" real‘s first cashier. Mr. Griffin, whose nosition was similar to that of a present-day bank manager, served with the B 6f M from 1817â€" to 1827. â€" Mr. Spinney served at a numâ€" ber of posts in the bank before his appointment as assistant to the ‘general manager 1922. In 1928, heâ€" was appointed an assistâ€" ant general manager and eight years later <«he became general manager. â€" During the war, Mr. Spinney was chairman of the First:Victory Loan Campaign and Yfor two years he was chairman of the National War Finance Committee. 8 se LOCAL â€" Gordon C. Campbell,, present manager of the Timmins Branch of the Bank of Mon#reahk Mr. Campbell has had 32 years experience in the banking business. He is a memâ€" ber of the Kiwanis â€" Club, the Timmins Golf Club and the Mcâ€" Iptyre. Country Club; ~ _ GEORGE . W. SPINNEY, C.M. G., president of the Bank of Montreal for the past five years of the bank‘s 130â€"year history. A member of the staff since 1906, he joined the bank as a junior at his native town of Yarmouth, N.S. CANADA‘s FIRST BANK MANAGER Ontario‘s cldest banking institut.on is 130 years old this week. I; was in 1817 that the first regular stageâ€"coach run began between Kungâ€" ston and York.. That same historic year saw the founding of Canada‘s first permanent bank â€" the B of M, as millions cf Canadians now call it. The date was November 3, and thus this Monday marked the bank‘s 130th anniversary. In all the inservening years, the B of M has opened for bus ness on every single banking day â€" an impressive proof of how cinsely and ccntinuously the bank‘s work has been woven into the vast progress of the country since colonial days. Odest in Canada, as well as in Ontâ€" ario, the Bank of Montreal, although organized in Quebec, had two branches in this province witiin eight months f its foundation â€" one at York and another at Kingston â€" and, today, the bank has substantially more offices in Ontario than in any other province of the Dominion *# Pioncer Days A good account of early times has come down frem James Croil, a British seitler. who laier became a Bank ol Montreal shareholder for the extraâ€" ordinary span c¢f 60 years. "When I tegan farming in Ontarlo‘, Mr Croil‘s recollections beg.n, ‘"we had neither mowing nor reaping nor threshâ€" ing machines, and the women had no sewing machines ..â€".. The postage When the Montreal Bank, as it was then known, first cpened its doors, the population of Canada was Just aâ€" bout half a million. Trade was carried on princ.pally by barter, and io a lesâ€" ser extent by the use of American, British, French, Spanish and Portuâ€" guese money. eml wuer ot tbe : a on a le.ter from Ontario to Halifax was two shillinys threepence .. .. ‘There was no money in circulation in Mr. Croil wrote those words referâ€" ring to Canadian conditions at a time a good deal later in the nineteenth ceontury than 1817. It can be imaginâ€" ed how difficult life was in that even more primitive day. ‘ those days by barter . . Canada‘s First Money At the very outset, thke young bank issued its own bills in small dehominaâ€" tionrs and, later, copper tokens. ‘This money, indeed, was the first real Canâ€" adian currency. The ifnnovaition did much to stab.lize and speed up comâ€" merce and industry, which had hitherâ€" to been subject to the vikrying rates of exchange of the several currencies in use. | This was but one aspect of the bank‘s major contribution to tthe Canadian eccnomy. That contribugkion ahmounted to nothing less than ending the chg,ps in which business was Gransacted aind organ.zing the first donaestic financxal system of Canada. | : So well did the ban‘k succeed that this system has since esvolved without ever losing its stability, no matter how crilical the ‘times or kow rapid,.the country‘s growth. Thusi, through mrore than a; century and a ql tarter,; the Canâ€" adian econdmy. Has. sur\[wed two major wats and several minor ches, as well as periodic : tmd civil unrest. It has expanded many t:iimes since 1817 and has won worldâ€"recignition for its Tare combination of d?na.mic growth and steadiness. Much of the naticn‘s economic sirength derives from another prinâ€" ciple which the‘ bank :introduced . in Canada. This was the: branchâ€"bankâ€" ing system. Within a fcrtnight of the opening of the first in Montreal, an agéncy was started i11 Quebec City. In the following vear th 2 B of M open. ed at York â€".the Qu(u‘n City‘s first bank â€"â€" and another 2t the garrison town of Kingston. Spreading Bra mches As the years nassed, t he bank spread its branches all over CGitnada. During the early 1840‘s, it open :d branches at Bytown, now Ottawa, s;t St. Thomas, Beélleville, Si. Catharirass, Brockville, Hamilton and London. | In the onenirs of tm West which the B of M faciliated "by placing its rescurces behind Carack.‘s first transâ€" continental railway, the »Canadian Pacâ€" ific, its branches went ‘hand in hand with the pioneers and va:re established at key points from coirst to coast at an early dat‘e. j The bank contributed *vitaliy to many phasss of home front :»ctivity in both world wars, In peace as well as war, the strength, swift progress and high standard of living of thie: young countâ€" ry can be at‘ributed i2 a unique deâ€" gree to the ncilcies of q.s oldest bank. And the B of M has g;rown with the country. ol with t codadiictet â€" d The bank began wilh. a capital of $250,000 and a staff of At the present time its capii al.\ and resorves amount to $78,000,000. ‘ Its resources are close to the twoâ€"bill in mark, and its staff numbers more t han 8,000. It has .over 500 branches, ir 1 :luding offices in Ncwfoundland, New !Zork, London, Chicago and San Fran cvisco. Its deâ€" positors number more th un 1,500,000 â€" about one cut of every .five bank deâ€" positors an the Thus, the bank t.hat. 'mue colonial merchants started in s1 mh a modest way 130 vsars ago, has b cr:ome, indeed an int.egral part: :of t.he'. life of the nation. ~ 1942, he ssumed the dllties o genâ€" eral manager of the orgs m‘zation ers‘ Association and a .t iceâ€"presâ€" ident of the Americar . Bankers‘ Association. Mr. Gardner, whose wide exâ€" perience in banking > jes serâ€" vice in England, the . United States and Newfoundland, as weil . . . Everything was dont Taken from an old handâ€"coloured engraving, his Wlnter scene is a view of St. James Strcet, Montrsal, as it appeared in 1830, thirtecn years after the Bank of Montreal‘s fonnding. The buifiding on the right was the first head office of the bank,. which served ns hcadâ€" quarters for the B of M from 1819 to 1848.. This was the filrst buildâ€"â€" ing*especially constructed for banking purposes in ada. â€" Today a posi office stands on this site, while adjacent to it, facing historic Place d‘Armes, is situated the bank‘s present head. office building, completed and occupied in 1848. . t Es ‘,__A_â€"__â€"â€". malP Z2 2 0 *stagecoach . . . such was the order of the day when the Bank of Montreal began business in Upper Canada. Within eight months of its founding in November, 1817, the B of Mâ€"Canada‘s firstâ€"established bank â€" opened agencies in the garriâ€" son town of Kingston and the tradingsettlement of York. Typical settlers of the time,. the thousand citizens of â€"York lived by: farming, lumbering, and trading with the Indians. Since that farâ€"off day, Ontario has become the most populous and highiy indusâ€" trialized Canadian province . . . and the B of M has built up its largest representation here. the new 16â€"storey B of M building will be numbered among Toronto‘s many â€" beautiful edifices . .. typical of the progress Onâ€" tario and the Bank of Montâ€" real have made together. Teday, the B of M serves the ‘people of this modernâ€" minded province through 189 hranches and is constantâ€" ly adding to this number. IO A CANAD!A d %* § m es * Te s yer l e PEA .V_»“.'v > \GronckW.Spifury,G:MM.G.. President An exhausted Europeâ€"torn by deâ€" cades of warâ€"was breathing more S casily . ..._two years before, the Napoleonic Wars had at last ended at Waterloo. In the New World, the threeâ€"yearâ€"old Treaty of Ghent had ended an attéempted invasion from the south ... and the peoples of North America began a friendship that is the admiration‘ of the world today.. i TO this scene came nine men of vision .. : nine English and Scottish merchants who realized. that, without a solid financial foundation, the colonies could never reach nationhood. Together, they dctcrmmcd a course of action. WVith their own money and the backing of 209 other pionecring citizens, these nine men founded < the Bank of Montreal, which opened its doors for business on November 3rd, 18 17. Never once since then has the Bank failed to opem on a business day. UT all was not easy. There were 2 hard, trying days ahceadâ€"each deâ€" cade had its ups _and~down's. From 1836 to 1840, Canada experienced a succesâ€" sion of bad harvests, political convulâ€" sions, commercial changes and failures. Rebellion had depreciated the value of property and seriously hindered the imâ€" provement and further settlement of the counity. The Bank of Montreal survived only by the most careful use of its reâ€" sources and the confident loyalty of its depasitors. T j2% “'.‘ Lo M en 1 s oi q o t \What of Tomorrow...? of Canada" and of her firstâ€"established b _.__,__ Local Branch B. of M. Has: m m . Servéd Porcupine 25 Years| of Canada" and of her hirstâ€"establi; morrows for the u.mon. "The twe we pledge ourselves anew to work â€"Peace ... new plans ... new hopes ... rehabilitation. Life in Canada still takes work, courage and, above all, vision ... Z the kind of vision which‘ spurred nine men to pionceer the nation‘s cconomy 130 years ago. From a corporal‘s guartl ‘in ; 1817, the staf of the Bof M.has grown t0 an army cight thousand strong ... working closely with Canadians and their industrics in hundreds of communities from coast to coast. .. supplying the lifeblood of credit to an expanding nation ... seeking alwaysâ€"through sound counsel and friendly serviceâ€"1o give practical help to the million and a half customers who put their trust in the Bank. On July 4, this summer, the Bank of Montreal‘s leeol office celebrated its 25th anniversary here. Aithough young in years compared to the parent inâ€" stitution with its record of 130 years of service to Canadians, the ‘Timmins branch has played a leading role in the district‘s growth and has operated here during the most impotant years of its development. The populance, which at the time of the branch‘s opening in 1923 numâ€" bered around 9,500, has since trebled to a figure above the 28,000 mark. Keepâ€" ing pace with this .remarkable exâ€" pansion in both mining and populaâ€" tion, the bank has provided highly satâ€" isfactory service for Timmins and the rest of the Porcupine district. Present manager of the ‘Bank of Montreal‘s office here is Gordon. C. Campbell, whose 32 years‘ banking ¢xâ€" perience qualmes him to handle the branch‘s affairs. Like h‘s predecessors, Mr. Campbell participates in a number of lccal activities, belonging to the Kiwanis Club, the Timmins Golf Club and the McIntyre Curling Club. l BAnK or MoNTREAL â€" _ Canada‘s Firstâ€"established Bank : *~Â¥ .. OHLOYVYOUW . . . . just as history foreshadows the future, so the record of her firstâ€"established bank working together gives promxsc of bright toâ€" : nation. "The twentieth century belongs to Canada" . and for that future Ives anew to work constructively with Canadians in evcry walk of life. RE(IOVERY was rapid during: the middle years of the century. Then came 1867 :..and a nation was born. But a transâ€"continental railway was a .condition of Confedecration, and now the Canadian Pacific had to be pushed through. To speed the construction, the enterprise was placed in private hands. The work went fast, and the last spike was driven five years carlier than cxâ€" pected. With faith characteristic ofcits nine founders, the B of M had hbacked to the limit this great national project. T the very outset, the Bank issued its own bills and coins. Mere was Canada‘s first real money. The currency won â€" immediate acceptance ... goods moved more quickly... andthe stability the nine men hoped for came rapidly. The people proudly welcomed this Canadian currency â€"and, as its circulation spread, so did the reputation of the new bank. Within a year of its founding it became the Government‘s banker, and its currency officially replaced the British money used by the Government up to that time. + «t C e tm un en B. C.Gnmm. Vice Frmfdbm_md General Managert sat UST two weeks after the Bank started, Canada‘s first. branch. bank was founded . . . the B of M‘s Quebec agency .opcncdâ€".â€".amd,. thus, the Canadian branch banking system began. The following year saw agencies opened at Kingston and York, now Toronto, and branches spread as the years went on. Hailed throughout the world for its strength and. flexibility, this system of branch bankingâ€"begun 130 years agoâ€"has proved ideal for a country vast in arca and small in population. 1‘90 ‘century opened with . a new flood of prosperity which. Jasted for more than a decade. Two more | transâ€"continental railway systems ... a great iinflux of new sertlers ue TWEMETH GENTypy .. . . * > ue BEiORE3 To CANADA , so the record * * «*