POST OFFICE SAVINGS BANKS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXV, Issue 168, 16 July 1894, Page 2

POST OFFICE SAVINGS BANKS.

A glance at the return showing the business of the Post Office Sayings Banks in the colony year by year, from the date when they ware first established in February, 1867, down to the end of last year, is interesting as well as instructive. The table, besides furnishing ub with very eood means of judging of the prosperity of the

colony, enables us to make some comparisons between the combined prosperity aad thrift of the inhabitants in different parta of the colony. When the Post Office Savings Banks were first opened in the colony in 1867, they numbered 46, and the total amount deposited during the first twelve months of their existence was £96,373. In 1893 tke offices had increased to 327, and the deposits for the year to £2,386,089, bub alongside of this enormous increase, it is worth while noting thab while twenty-six years ago the average amount standing bo the credib of each open account at the close of the year was £33, the corresponding amount ab tho end of 1893 was only £26 8« 6d. Colonists a quarter of a century ago were oibher more saving or bebtsr off than tkey are today. Another fact which also strikes one in comparing tho figures for 1893 and 1868 is that in the latter year the total aosounb of withdrawals was roughly speaking only about a fourth of the deposits, while during the former period bh* withdrawals were equal to about seven-eighths of the deposits. The average amounb of each withdrawal nowadays runs about £15, bub in 1875 it was doss on £20, and in the previous year ib was nearly £21. The total amounb standing to the credit of all open accounts, inclusive of intereit, at the close of the year, was in 1893 £3,241,998. Coming to a comparison between various postal districts, we find Wellington in the van. In 1893 there were 34 offices in that district, and tbe total amount of deposits received during the year was £467,985. Compared with this, Auckland has 76 offices, bub the money received was only £378,525. We have to bear in mind, howaver, that the Auckland Savings Bank holds deposits to the amount of half a million sterling, and there is no similar institution in Wellington or Christchurcb. Auckland is considerably in advance of Wellington when we come to the column showing tbe average amount standing to the credit of each open account ab the cleeo of bhe year. In Wellington, the average is aboub £24, while in tbe Auckland disbricb ib is £31 16s. Our district in respect of the total deposits rocoived;does nob come next to Wellington; Christchurch comes between with £449,194, bub Chriitchurch, like Wellington, shows a smaller average in the amount of each deposit than Auckland, the average deposit there being only £11 12s, to £16 6s in Auckland. The district which has the City of the Plains for its centre, is better in this respecttkan Wellington, where the average amount of each deposit is£lolßs. It is not in tbe large centres, however, thab we musb look for the largest average amount standing to the credib of each open account. In the Hokitika district a much higher standard either of thrift or prosperity would seem to prevail there. The average amount to the credib of oach man, woman and child who owns a Post Office bank-book in £37 9s. This is a good advance on Auckland, which stands second in this respect.