Over £1,500,000 In Greymouth Savings Bank

Greymouth Evening Star, 24 August 1948, Page 2

Over £1,500,000 In Greymouth Savings Bank

More than £1,500,000 is the substantial “nest egg” of small savings, in the Grey district, as represented by the amount held on deposit for 13,560 investors in the Greymouth branch of the Post Office Savings Bank. Though this £1,500,000 mark was attained some months ago, a run of withdrawals caused a temporary decline, below this figure, but subsequent investments have built the total to £1,511,500. Greymouth investments .represent one per cent of New Zealand’s total Post Office .savings—£l4B,ooo,ooo—- — average of £lOB per investor. A total of £458,000 was lodged in the bank last year by Grey district and Hokitika subscribers and about oneninth or almost £58,000 was left after £400,000 had been withdrawn. The “Golden West” In the heyday of the “Golden West” it is claimed that miners who had found their version of the “El Dorado” showed their contempt for paper money by using it to light their pipes, says a statement released by the public relations office of the Post and Telegraph Department, Wellington, in elaboration of information given to the Evening Star in recent inquiries made at the Chief Post Office, Greymouth. It would seem, however, that these grandiloquent gestures were reserved for the more exhilarating moments when there was a suitable audience, as history reveals that more than one gold miner gave a thought to the morrow, continued the statement. In fact, the desire to save a little for the rainy day or, perhaps more aptly, the day the strike peters out, was so keen that one of the first of five Post Office Savings Bank ledger branches in New Zealand was opened at Hokitika on February 1, 1867, the other branches opened on that date being Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin. Thriving Business The new branch did a thriving business and although in later years Hokitika had to cede to Greymouth much of its pride and privilege, the Post Office Savings Bank remained to serve the people who had by that time turned their hands to other trades. The fact that the new occupations of the townsfolk tended to improve rather than decline from the “golden” standard of general prosperity is revealed in the 'statistics of the Hokitika Post Office Savings Bank which on March 31 last had 2206 depositors with an average of £lOO in each account. In like manner to its loss of other public facilities, Hokitika in 1921 became merged in the Greymouth postal district. Greymouth as the. chief office of the district kept the ledgers for all its offices, except Hokitika which has continued to function as a separate ledger office. £lOB Each The activities of the Post Office Savings Bank on the basis ol the Greymouth postal district are revealed in even more impressive figures. During the year ended March 31, 1948, amounts totalling £458,544 were deposited while £400,820 was withdrawn. The amount to depositors’ credit was £1,690,246 which represents an average of £lOB in each ol the 15,760 accounts. In 1938 the average of the credit balances was £66, so that in the last decade the accumulated savings of depositors have increased by wore than 50 per cent. On a national basis, the Post Office Savings Bank at the end of the financial year, held deposits amounting to £148,442,304 in 1,277,265 accounts. Although the Greymouth figures may appear small by comparison, the 1 office is regarded officially as one of the most important units and this was recognised last January, when an accounting machine was installed to operate the ledgers. The work of balancing the old ledgers, entering up the new ledgers and reconciling the twtf was a notable feat to be performed in the short space of one week-end. The work of installing accounting machines has now been completed at all the principal offices except Wellington, where the work of conver- , sion to mechanised ledgers will be ' undertaken later this month. At Christchurch and Auckland, the work of conversion to the mechanised procedure involved the balancing of 157,328 and 170,270 accounts respectively, but. in Greymouth, the work at each of these cities was completed in a week-end. Mechanised Process

To the depositor, the ledger machine makes little appreciable difference, but to the Savings Bank officer it means the end of the many hours of overtime that were previously spent, in the three laborious balances in each year. Under the mechanised procedure each account which has had either a deposit or a withdrawal during the day is balanced after the entry has been posted. Reproduction by carbon process on “proof” sheets of the figures posted by the machine to the individual ledger cards, gives a continuous record of the day’s transactions, which provide the information for posting to sectional and office control cards. In this way the control cards progressively reflect the movement of all accounts, and at any given time, the aggregate of the balances of all individual accounts will equal the balance on the principal control card. The existence of a free telegraphic withdrawal service which was introduced on July 1 last, is not generally known. To illustrate how convenient the .system is, a depositor at. the Franz Josef Glacier whose savings bank account is kept at Hokitika or Greymouth, may apply at the local office at 9 a.m. and expect to receive payment of a withdrawal within a fewaninutes of 10 o’clock.