W. Martin, L. A. Masterman, H. S. Scarth, A. V. Darrach, J. D. Cameron, W. J. Rowe, N. W. Kerr, L. T. Tweed, E. D. McMeans, O. G. McNabb, H. Wheeldon, E. G. Trick, E. M. Beaudry, and A. U. Le Bel.

ATTORNEY-PART 1.

R. E. Atkinson, G. C. Lindsay, E. W. Gerrand, M. H. Teskey, R. Hoskins, A. B. Elliott, G. W. Culver, H. Gyles, J. W. Mitchell, A. H. J. Andrews, A. H. Warner, H. C. Morrison, R. Cole, J. K. Morton, W. J. Major, A. B. Bell, D. McKenna, M. L. Bell, C. W. Jackson, A. T. Hawley, all with honours.

F. T. Taylor, B. V. Richardson, H. B. Burton, J. E. Reynolds, J. H. Radford, F. A. E. Hamilton, G. E. Winkler, J. F. Waller, J. M. O'Grady, C. H. Dixon, H. C. H. Brayfield,, G. C. M. Boothe, J. S. Craig, G. F. O'Grady, J. T. Beaubien, and A. U. Le Bel.

FIRST INTERMEDIATE.

S. Abrahamson, J. Isaacs, and J. L. McManus, all with honours.

J. W. Dempsey, A. M. Shinbane, A. E. Neville, S. H. Potter, R. M. Maclean, A. McDonald, J. E. Ramsden, C. D. Roblin, F. G. Thompson, H. L. Jackson, F. I. Simpson, J. M. Carmichael, F. M. Ferg, W. J. Hummel, W. E. Davidson, R. B. Kilbourne, A. S. Baird, Miss Melrose Sissons, R. Bird, H. W. Porter, G. A. Elliott, W. L. Mawhinney, H. E. Kennedy, G. F. D. Bond, J. L. Salterio, A. C. Reid, J. A. Davidson, H. L. Cathrea, F. G. Warburton, J. D. McRae, and C. M. Graban.

SECOND INTERMEDIATE.

G. A. E. Bury, R. M. Pearson, W. M. Noble, J. J. Milne, M. M. Perdue, and C. L. Simmonds, all with honours.

R. McQueen, A. M. Graham, H. J. Riley, W. R. Sexsmith, C. D. Bates, C. W. Chappell, H. Gill, K. R. Kennedy, R. McKay, D. W. Yuill, F. F. Sewell, D. Nicholson, and E. R. R. Mills.

SASKATCHEWAN LAW SCHOOL EXAMINATIONS.

The following candidates have been successful in the recent Saskatchewan Law Society's examinations:

FIRST INTERMEDIATE,

S. Curtin, J. C. Speers, V. B. Lackey, W. J. Jolly, J. A. Strang, and A. F. Sample, of Regina; H. E. Hartney, Saskatoon; R. F. Hall, Humboldt; H. E. Ross, Moose Jaw, and V. J. Lindal, and E. T. Collins.

SECOND INTERMEDIATE.

F. J. Brigel, A. L. Geddes, and D. A. McNiven, of Regina; W. H. Holmes and P. J. Hodge, of Saskatoon; E. J. Campbell, Arcola; H. A. Ebbels, Weyburn.

FINALS.

H. G. Fork and J. E. Lussier, Regina; F. C. Hayes, Swift Current; E. A. S. James and E. McPheeters, Moose Jaw; R. S. Dean, Melfort; F. G. Atkinson, D. S. Walker and M. L. M. Skelton, Battleford; W. J. McDonald and E. S. Wilson, Yorkton; J. S. Price, W. M. Aseltine and B. M. T. C. Wakeling.

SPECIAL STATUTE AND PRACTICE.

D. Forrester and W. Amyot, Regina; M. A. Miller, Weyburn; J. W. Murray, J. Muir, Moose Jaw; S. M. Walker, Saskatoon; E. T. Heap. Prince Albert; Wm. Nicol, Foam Lake; J. H. Gunn.

SOME OBSERVATIONS ON THE BANK ACT AND BANKING AS CONDUCTED THEREUNDER.

The Bank Act as introduced into the House of Commons by the Minister of Finance, is practically a re-enactment of the existing Act, with some four additional provisions-two of which are extended privileges to the banks, viz., power to loan to farmers on the security of their live stock, and power to issue additional circulation notes to the extent of the bank's deposits of gold coin and Dominion notes with the trustees appointed to hold such "central gold reserves." The other two are additional safeguards to prevent a repetition of what happened in the case of the Farmers Bank, first to prevent fraud in the organization of a bank and afterwards to keep the management straight, by what is termed a stockholders' audit.

Without waiting to discuss the merit of the proposed audit, which in effect will be an audit of a few of the leading stockholders controlling the management as compared with an independent Government inspection and audit, the object of this short article is to call the attention of the public as to whether there are not other provisions more important by far to the great business community than those above mentioned, that should be introduced into the new Act, and in order to make apparent what some of these additional provisions should be, I will endeavour to point out some of the existing conditions that should be remedied.

In the first place the bank organization controlled and regulated as it is by the Bankers' Association and recognized by the Bank Act, is the most colossal, powerful and growing combination and monopoly, existing in the Dominion today. Other combinations and consolidations exist, but each is confined to one industry while the bank monopoly controls the whole circulating medium of all the industries, and of the whole business of the country-and how has it used its great power?

The aggregate paid up capital stock of all the banks in Canada is only $118,000,000, about equal to nine months' income of our principal railway or three-fourths of the amount J. Pierpont Morgan has on deposit awaiting investment for his customers, yet to what a huge sum have the aggregate assets of these banks grown, in addition to the increased value to

which the $118,000,000 paid capital has grown, viz., over $260,000,000. How has this been accomplished? By levying exorbitant rates of interest on the business community and paying too small a rate of interest on deposits. The Act gives banks a right to charge 7 per cent. compound interest in advance daily, monthly, or in any periods they choose with other collection charges, and to pay any rate of interest on deposits that they may get together and decide on-now only three per cent.

At present the deposits aggregate over one billion dollars, four-tenths of which bears no interest and the other sixtenths bearing only three per cent. per annum.

Then, again, when a money scarcity or stringency arises, be it ever so slight, up goes the rate of interest, even on current loans. This is how the banks assist their customers over a shallow spot. What would be said of a landlord, who learning that his tenant was finding his business a little temporarily depressed raised the rent on him? Yet this is how the bank deals with its customers, and as there is no competition in the combine, it can do what it pleases in this respect. It is a fact that in the depression year of 1907, which was largely dreaded by the banks themselves, their income was larger than in the previous year, when there was no depression, because of the increasing of the interest rates. How many of the readers of this article have had the interest on their bank account raised within the past two months?

And thus it is that our bank presidents in their annual reports are able to shew such large profits, some of them over 20 per cent. per annum, after hiding away large sums in various ways. If an obscure chattel mortgagee were to let it be known that he made 20 per cent. on his investments he would be in jail next day as a criminal, but these exorbitant earnings are respectable in banking. If Shylock lived in Canada to-day, instead of feeling himself to be a self debased extortioner, he would be at the head of a prosperous bank, probably anticipating a knighthood.

Some years ago the legal rate of interest was reduced to five per cent. The maximum bank rate should not be more than the legal rate. Has it not been the greed for big profits that has wrecked nearly all the banks that have gone to the wall in the past 25 years, by taking large risks for the chance of making large profits.

Then again why should bank managers be allowed to send the people's deposits or the bank's moneys out of the country to speculate with when the country's own business needs it at home; and if they do, why should their returns not shew the amount invested in each foreign country, separately, and the nature of the investments, instead of as they do under the Act, bunch the whole foreign investments under the headings "Balances due by Banks," and "banking correspondents elsewhere than in Canada," "call and short loans elsewhere than in Canada," and "other current loans and discounts elsewhere than in Canada?" Surely the depositors and stockholders are entitled to know where their moneys are being invested, and how, and whether for speculative purposes on the New York stock market, or in some questionable Mexican venture.

In days gone by we had the statutes of Mortmain to prevent the accumulation of property in corporation hands. How long will it take the banks at their present rate of accumulation to possess the whole circulating wealth of the country? There should be some legislation brakes inserted in this Act.

An important question now is who is there in the House. of Commons to stand up for the rights and interests of the business borrowing community. Who will have the courage? Will the large bank stockholder be unwilling or the large borrower dare to oppose the banking interests? Nous verrous.

PRO BONO PUBLICO.