SAVINGS BANK PROFITS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 96, 24 April 1931, Page 10

SAVINGS BANK PROFITS.

TRANSFER IN ADVANCE. QUESTIONS IN PARUAMENT. LABOUR MEMBER REBUKED. (By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Thursday. Power is to be given the Minister of Finance to appropriate certain profits of the Post and Telegraph Department, and when this clause of the Finance Bill was reached in committee in" the House to-night several members criticised one portion, which will enable anticipated profits to be taken. This, it was explained by the" Finance Minister, the Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes, meant that at the half-year a proportion of the Savings Bank profits could be transferred to the consolidated revenue. The main items'on which he depended, said Mr. Forbes, were increased postage •rates, to yield £900,000, and salary reductions, £190,000, making the total £1,090.000. It had been suggested that the same amount of business would not be done, but these were the estimates of the Department's officers, who had full knowledge of the conditions of business outside. As for the Savings Bank, said Mr. Forbes, he could give the assurance that j it was in a very different position from that of the New South Wales State Savings Bank. Mr. E. J. Howard (Lab., Christchurch South), apparently taking exception to the Prime Minister's final sentence,. declared that if the Government's policy was not satisfactory . to the banks, chambers of commerce and big commercial institutions, they would make a run. on the Post Office Savings- Bank. When, during the waterside workers' strike, there was a danger of that kind, legislation was hurriedly passed requiring notice of withdrawal to be given, and certain limits were imposed. "If you had a run of four or five millions," he concluded, "where would you get the money? I object to the suggestion for robbing the Savings Bank. If Labour was on the Treasury benches and we put, that into a bill, every chamber of . commerce, every bank and all the moneyed people would -be after us." "The teuor of the remarks of the last- speaker - is- not -at -alb vrise, 1 * • Vky

clared the Hon. W. Downie Stewart (Reform, Dunedin West). '""There is not justification for them. The suggestion that there is anv analogy between New Zealand and Australia is entirely unfounded, and such remarks, to cause disturbance in the public mind, should only be made if members are satisfied there is some foundation for them." . The Post Office Savings Bank, added Mr. Stewart, wag not on the same footing as the institution which had heen mentioned, because it always had ample liquid funds, and reserve behind that If he had criticised this section it was only because of the evidence of a reaching out in every, direction for money. He did not criticise it for its unsoundness. "It is an entirely unfounded and extremely . unwise statement to make, was Mr. Stewart's final reference to Mr. Howard's remarks. Replying to further speakers, Mr. Forbes said the amount involved, as far as the Savings Bank was concerned, was only £90,000. The extra postage which had been imposed for the benefit of the Consolidated Fund would have to be received in instalments, otherwise the money would be idle and the interest would have to be paid on it. He undertook to have the clause looked into, with a view to reconstructing its phraseology, if necessary.