Mr Perceval Saves £1000 a Year.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1057, 2 June 1892, Page 12

Mr Perceval Saves £IOOO a Year.

The Agent-General (says the London correspondent of the Dunedin Star) has just effected an arrangement with the Bank of England which will oavs the Colony from £IOOO to £ISOO a year. It is not a great maUer, perhaps, but wor h mentioning as an instance of the thorough manner in which Mr Perceval is overhauling and modifying the traditions of his office. In the course of business he discovered that the Bank of England, when making payments of interest, &c., on behalf of the Colony, was accustomed to demand that the money should be placed in its hands ten days before the date on which it began to disburse it. Bearing in mind that the Old Lady of Threadneedle street is the Colony’s banker, and that she habitually holds securities for a far burger amount than these sums ever total, the Agent-General could see no valid reason why New Zealand should lose ten days’ interest. It did not amount to much perhaps (‘ a mere bagatelle ’ the Bank grandly called it), but, on the 1 every little helps ’ principle, Mr Perceval thought that the Colony might just as well have it. So he bailed up the Old Lady of Threadneedle street on the subject and talked it out. At first, being a conservative old soul, and enmeshed in red tape, the Bank could not see why your Agent-General should desire to improve on arrangements which ‘ that great financier Sir Francis Ball ’ and his predecessors had tolerated. But Mr Perceval’s persistence and common sense carried the day. In future, so long as the Bank holds cover for the sum to be disbursed, it will not be deposited till two instead of ten days before the advertised date. This means a saving to New Zealand of eight days’ interest, or (as I Baid to begin with) about £IOOO or so per annum. ‘ A mere bagatelle ’ to a nation, no doubt, but surely a little matter that was worth arranging, and for which the Agent-General deserves his meed of kudos.