THRIFT OF THE PEOPLE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22714, 28 April 1937, Page 10

THRIFT OF THE PEOPLE

It is usual, in the annual report of the Auckland Savings Bank, for some emphasis to be laid on the value of thrift. The observation can always be pointed by reference to the amount at the credit of depositors. At this year's annual meeting a tribute was again paid to thrift, and the amount of deposits illustrating how the virtue is still present was £8,021,000, or £403,000 more than the figure a year before. This institution is only one of similar agencies for encouraging the habit of saving. The whole sum they hold for the benefit of citizens who put something by for a rainy day is impressive. At March 31, 1936, the Post Office Savings Bank held deposits to the value of £52,916,000. The five trustee savings banks—of which the Auckland is by far the greatest—held £11,774,000, making the total to the credit of all depositors £64,690,000. These represent the aggregate of small savings in immediately liquid form, but they do not by any means exhaust the forms in which thrift and prudence show themselves. At the end of 1935 the sum assured by ordinary life insurance policies was £108,161,000, on which the annual premiums amounted to £3,742,500. Industrial policies totalled £15,742,500, with annual premiums aggregating £927,000. According to a statement issued in 1933 by the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, New Zealand stands as third country in the world for life insurance per head of the population, only the United States and Canada ranking higher. Friendly societies are a further agency for the receipt of small savings. At December 31, 1935, the funds of registered fi-iendly societies were valued at £4,813,000. They almost reached the level of investing and capital shares held in building societies, which in 1935-36 were valued at £4,927,000. With these figures must be associated an unknown amount represented by the ownership of, or equitable interests in, homes, or sections on which the proprietors hope to see homes stand some day. The spirit of thrift still works and the results of its exercise stand, a stabilising influence in a time of changing values.