DODGING THE FACTS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17396, 6 February 1917, Page 4

DODGING THE FACTS.

We regret to see a contemporary persisting in tho unworthy task of deceiving its readers in regard to tho Post Offico Savings Bank accounts. As everybody knows, tlioro has in the last couple of years beon a phenomenal rise in the total of deposits in this bank. Tho reason is not far to seek. New Zealand has been so deluged with Avar gains that the amounts to credit of current accounts in the trading banks have swelled into very many millions of pounds, and as the banks pay no interest upon such credits the owners of tho money have transferred to the Post Office Savings Bank as much of their surplus as that institution will accept and pay interest upon. In short, the extra money put into the Savings Bank is principally the overflow from the other banks. Every financial authority knows this, and no honest, intelligent study of tho facts can lead to any other conclusion. Consequently, when we see it contended that the heavier deposits in the Savings Bank represent an improvement in tho economic condition of the working people, we know the contention to be quite wrong; and when upon that ■ fallacy is based a plea for tn c raiding j of wages by the Government, wo feel bound in the interests of common justice to do our part in exposing the would-be raiders and protecting working men and women against further plunder. An analysis of the Savings Bank returns proves that the percentages of increases in the number of accounts during the last couple of years has been ton' times as great in respect of accounts with credits of £6OO and over as in respect of those of £2OO and under. As a matter of fact, tho increase in very small accounts during the war—accounts in credit in varying sums up to £2o—has been less than normal. In 1914 tho number of accounts of £2O and under increased over 1913 by 5.4 per cent, while those of £6OO and over went up 56.8 per cent. tfhe growth in 1915 was 2.5 per cent in the small accounts and 35.1 per cent in the big—the 35.1 per cent rise following a sensational advance in the previous year. Our contemporary tries to dispose of these percentages by quoting numbers, which happens to bo the surest way of dodging the true meaning of the returns. We should not be so particular about exposing such fancy tricks except that i they are indulged m for the purpose of supporting an ignoble agitation. Our contemporary tries to belittle, when it does not ignore, the huge increase that has taken place in the. cost of living, which is equivalent to a direct and heavy tax upon earnings, and at the same time it urges the Government'to make a further raid upon wages in order that holders or war profits may bo sheltered. And when war profits overflow from tho trading banks to the Post Offico Savings Bank, the public is invited to contemplate the swollen volume of deposits and think it means an accumulation of untaxed surplus wages!