PHASES OF PROGRESS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18196, 15 September 1922, Page 9

PHASES OF PROGRESS.

CONTRASTS IN AUCKLAND.

LUXURY AND THRIFT.

SAVINGS ON THE INCREASE.

A talk with bankers and other representatives of financial business, reveals that the thriftiest men in Auckland are among its most successful citizens. Their investments increase in unassailable security.

So much so is this an outstanding feature of local financial movement at present that one of the leading public bodies admits that offers for its debentures are quite embarrassing. It haa had to refuse thousands of pounds during the past month. Possibly, it is this- prudent attitude of thrifty citizens that makes speculative enterprise on the get-rich-quick orinciple, either an adventure or a short cut to the overcrowded strong-room of the official assignee. The Measure of Thrift. Savings bank records show that times are improving, though the standard of prudont. banking against hard times is still below normal. Tho practice of saving steadily in small sums increases, tho improvement having begun a few months ago. The difference in the number and value of deposits with the local savings banks is appreciable, though not yet to an extent commensurate with the opportunity for thrift. As one official phrases it, " the movement in savings bank money is still too much on the put-and-tako system." It is real thrift when deposits " stay put." Last year was admittedly a bad spell of economic strain, but tho position might have been improved immensely if the Auckland community had made, say, a Scottish effort to keep its savings sacrosanct. There were 222.755 depositors in the 172 savings banks within the Auckland postal district, and their deposits totalled £5,830.307, or more than twice the amount similarly banked in 1914. Tho average sum of deposits was £26 3s 6d. But there was very little real saving. The withdrawals by 225.550 depositors totalled £6,208,716, giving an average of £27 10s Bd. Possibly it is only on the right side of the Tweed (hat there is full appreciation of Barrie's famous quip that " the most impressive spectacle in the world is to see a Scotsman on the make.'* After all, even Dunedin broke away from tradition last year. Attractions and Activities. The rapid growth of Auckland, and its increasing attractions, probably explain why eager queues are never seen at tho savings bank deposit counters. The city has most of the defects as well as many of the qualities of great towns. Extremes of wealth and poverty pass daily in procession in the busy thoroughfares, with a generous sunshine softening down the sharpness of contrasts. The dominant mood is all for gaiety and the pleasures that take little heed of the morrow. Half of the adult population, as it seems, appears to be comfortably served with brand-new l'mousines; there is even some talk of establishing a kind of vigilance committco of citizens to save the few pedestrians from annhilation by a RollsRoyce or a Ford. Strangers might well be pardoned for a first impression that here, at last, is a city that has no need of old-fashioned frugality and thrift. Civic progress is everywhere in evi- i dence. The city is marked with the dust of development. Many of tho shops could take a place in greater cities, and stand any test of comparison. There is no fixed boundary to the range of growth and activity. New seaside townships are being steadily absorbed into the city standard. Along the waterfront in a hundred sheltered nooks all sorts of pleasure craft are in preparation for a gay summer-time. Less conspicuous but quite essential there is in a city by-strtrt the Salvation Army's shelter for the " down-and-outs." Impressionu of the Farmer. Occasionally the working farmer comes to town and grumbles at the sight of so much gaiety and care-free pleasures. Ho overlooks the fact that a considerable proportion of the retired citizens are men who earned their emanicipation in the country. it is all a delightful picture of activity' and attractions, with a generous soil in the background. But as shrewd men of business, thrifty men with a knowledge of the value of increasing investments, point out Greater Auckland would be greater still if its population would also take the Dominion lead in thrift.