OUR SAVINGS BANK.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 24, 28 January 1911, Page 4

OUR SAVINGS BANK.

The annual report of the Auckland Savings Bonk has Veen for many years past & record of uabrokeh.progress an6l prosperity; bill th* returns for 1910 surpass even the best results hitherto obtained. Tae number of diepbsitbni has increased steadily during the past ten years at the rate of about fe.ooo a year, and for 1910 there were 45,771 depositors on the register, as against 28,336 in 19011. In dimilar proportion, the sums deposited each year have risen from, £604,500 in 1901, to £918,100 in 1906. and to £1,210,322 in 1910. The amount of deposits on hand at close of year "was in 1901, £763,540; by 1906 the total -had passed the million mark; and f»y the end of 1910 the deposits in hand had reached the total of £1,292,091. One (Interesting feature of these returns is the predominance of the small depositor. Rather more than half the total balance oi deposits is credited in comparatively, large sums; but the remainder, amounting to aibout £620,000, all stands for savings of less than £100 on each account. It is evident that the Auckland Savings Bank is performing an important public duty iby encouraging thrift; and this is particularly noticeable in the record of the Penny Bank department. The number of accounts open at close of year haa (increased from 9,756 in 1901, to 14,203 in 1900; the mnn'ber of depositors has increased steadily evfery year; and the amounts at credit have increased from £7,702 to £15,561 at dose of year during the same period. This is an extremely encouraging result, as it shows that even children are being induced ■to save here by economising very small sums at a time: 'But generally speaking Auckland seems to have developed the habit of saving more strongly than any other centre of population in the Dominion. The Post Office Savinge Bank returns lor last year show that the amount to credit of depositors in the Auckland Post Office towards ihe close of 1910 -was about £516,000, while the total for Wellington was £491>000, foj Christchurch £433 t OO 6, and for Dunediii £323,000. But ko measure the savin* capacity of our people fairly we must add to the Post CHfice .oank deposits the sums now to the credit of depositors in the Auckland Savings Bank, and we get the huge total of at least £1,800,000; an enormous sum in itself, tout still more imposing when we compare it with the ! relatively modest savings of Wellington or Christehurch. It is clear that, in s<\ far as the hakit of saving is a firm 'basis for national Wealth and strength, Auckland's prosperity just now ie well founded. We need only add that aB a financial enterprise the Auckland Savings Bank has treen as successful during the past year as the figures we" have already qtioteft would suggest. The surplus profits at the close of last year exceeded £100,000, showing an incirease of more than £13,000 over the year, "and .more than £40,000 over iffOl. This should be good news for our public institutions; for as the .rate of interest payable by the Savings Bank is etrjetly limited %y ttw, the surplus ia likely "ulti-

mateljr W"6e demoted to some worthy public objects such mc the Technical College, which hie already profited through tile Saving Bank's success.