THE SMALL CAPITALIST

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 251, 20 September 1933, Page 6

THE SMALL CAPITALIST

Sir George Paisii is one of several people who do well. in reminding the people of Great Britain of the development of the small capitalist. “We are,” he said, “witnessing to-day a revolution in the financial sphere in ivhich a few wealthy capitalists are being replaced by a vast army of small investors.” A year ago, when the National Savings Assembly met at Blackpool, General Seely, chairman of the National Savings Committee, recalled that small saving’s which in 1911 amounted to £492,000,000, or £l2 per head of population, had in the succeeding twenty years grown to the astonishing total of £2,244,000,000, or the equivalent of £SO per head. To-day, it is estimated that the figure has grown to £2,400,000,000, but Sir George Paisii believes that the aggregate of all savings greatly exceeds even this stupendous sum. It is indeed a revolution which is all for the benefit of the nation. The people have been encouraged to regard thrift as an excellent trait and to invest the money they save. This year it is anticipated that £52,000,000 worth of National Savings Certificates will be sold—a million pounds weekly. The National Savings Movement was instituted during the Great War in 1916, and part of the organisation is the Savings Association, which is a voluntarily conducted savings club for the purchase of the certificates by instalments. There are more than 30,000 of these associations at work, and the amount to the credit of investors in the certificates some time ago was mentioned as almost £500,000,000. This, of course, is not the full story of the people's thrift. Savings banks, building societies, friendly and co-operative societies, insurance and other provident schemes provide the avenue for savings and investment which have become so marked a characteristic in the national life. As Sir George Paisii says, the savings of the nonwealtliy section of the community now formed a very important factor in the national economy. Notwithstanding the difficult period through which the people have been passing many have steadily exhibited the habit of saving, adding to the considerable proportion of the population who invest their small capital in the institutions provided for them.