THRIFTY CHILDREN.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 195, 19 August 1927, Page 9

THRIFTY CHILDREN.

SCHOOL SAVINGS BANKS. FIRST TEAR SUCCESSFUL OVER £6000 DEPOSITED.

"Please come and collect the money." "Just post it; it will be all right." "We can't. It's tied up in a sack." This was a conversation which took place over the telephone some time ago between the headmaster of one of the Auckland schools and an official of the Auckland Savings Bank just after the inauguration of the schools savings bank system. Needless to say, the required transport was quickly forthcoming, and a sum. of £20 in pennies and small coins was soon on its way to the bank. Nearly £1 per Child. The first year's trial of the schools banking system has been most successful. To-day there are 46 schools taking part in the movement, there are 6300 depositors, and a sum of over £6000 has been banked by the children, the average being nearly £1 per child. A start was made with the Grafton School. Newton West, Newton Central, and Grey Lynn Schools followed, and now there are four schools as far afield as Hamilton included. The New Lynn School is leading the list with 330 depositors, which might be taken to indicate that the New Lynn children are the most thrifty of any school group. There are now between 10.000 and 12,00 C children in the Auckland district regularly ir»Hiig deposits every month. Assistance from Teachers. The scheme has gone very well indeed," said one of the officials of the Auckland Savings Bank this morning, when reviewing the progress of the children's banking year. Its success was attributed to the headmasters and teachers, who had taken a kindlj interest in the scheme, and to the cooperation of the parents. The banK's .system is to collect the money the same day that the children make the weekly deposits, and the small pass books that the children have are familiar to most Auckland parents The idea is to givfs children a definite habit of regular saving, and the result expected is that in due course they wil be fully-fledged depositors. As an indication of the steady progress of the juvenile fund, it might bt mentioned that on April 1 last the tota of deposits was £3166, and four months later the total was £5800. In the same four months' period only £88 was withdrawn, the reason in many instances being that parents had shifted to another district, where the schools bani system was not in operation.