SYSTEM DEFENDED

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 36, 11 February 1926, Page 8

SYSTEM DEFENDED

. . . ■■■■——♦— —- . , .:■ ..' POST OFFICE SAVINGS BANK STATEMENT BY THE MINISTER. A further defence of the system enploycd in the Post Office Savings Bank, apropos the recent fraud which vu the subject of a Supreme Court eouTiotion, last week, was made to-day by tin Postmaster-General (Sir James Parr). ''When I made a statement about th* rccont fraud on the Post Office Saving* Bank, "said foe Minister, "I made it clear that the 'system' which had bee* attacked in the Court was not at fault. My assurance on the point has bees generally accepted, and it is somewhat surprising to read that another suggestion of fault is made in the local Press. In the 'Evening Posl' of the 9th instant, I am asked whether the officers were negligent, or whether they were following a practice excused by the necessity for working at high pressure. I say unhesitatingly," said the Minister, "that the officers were negligent, and, that there is not, and never has been, a practice in the bank inch as that suggested of omitting the usual checks. Snch a suggestion would be repudiated by any ledger clerk in the Dominion. It is admitted that rushes of business occur at the Saving! Banks, just as they happen in other businesses, including busy newspapers. The men cope with those rashes; and I am satisfied that they do not do so at tbe sacrifice of accurate work. Th« failures, I am glad to say, are, in comparison with the large business don*, remarkably few. No large business is immune from occasional error, but the annual Parliamentary report and audit inspection shows a rather . remarkable record in the Port Office Savings Bank in the way of good management an 4 few deficiencies."