S .s recomthe office >t grown confined ce it had act, been ›ack, and → Molson ollars its 1 to the its circue figures the direccessity of onsidered ars. with Mr. 1, with a capacity He nomi ank, Mr. ly known › Bank of ver, been parish of 11, he was +shire, THE LATE MR. WOLFERSTAN THOMAS WHENin 'HEN in the year 1870, Mr. Wolferstan Thomas was recommended to the directors of the Molsons Bank for the office of cashier, the bank was a very small affair, and had not grown much since its organization. Its business was wholly confined to Montreal, and during the fifteen years of its existence it had never attempted to enlarge its borders. It had, in fact, been rather dragging on than prospering for several years back, and it was sustained rather by the credit and prestige of the Molson family than in its own inherent strength. Although it had a paid-up capital of a million dollars its business was so small as to be out of all proportion to the extent of its capital; its deposits being only $920,000, its circulation $302,000 and its discounts $1,100,000. These figures will at once demonstrate the difficulty experienced by the directors of the bank in making sufficient profit, and the necessity of taking other measures in order to utilize what was considered in those days the considerable capital of a million dollars. Under these circumstances a consultation was had with Mr. King, the General Manager of the Bank of Montreal, with a view to his recommending some man of energy and capacity who would be likely to build up the institution. He nominated the manager of the London branch of the bank, Mr. Wolferstan Thomas, then a young man of 35, and only known in one or two Western towns where he had served the Bank of Montreal, and to the bank authorities themselves. Mr. Thomas' career up to this time had, however, been quite a noticeable one. The son of the Rector of a parish of the Church of England in the old county of Cornwall, he was educated at the Sherbourne Grammar School in Dorsetshire, |