THE ,POST OFFICE SAVINGS BANK.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20710, 7 May 1929, Page 8

THE ,POST OFFICE SAVINGS BANK.

The returns of the business of the Post Office Savings Bank, as an institution of which the operations extend throughout the whole Dominion, furnish a useful index of the material welfare of the people and of the extent of their practice of the virtue of thrift. Not for some years past have the returns shown an excess" of deposits over withdrawals, but, owing to the accumulations of interest, the total amount to the credit of depositor’s accounts has exhibited an advance from year to year. As marliing a break in the sequence of quarterly returns that disclosed an excess of withdrawals over deposits the returns for the past quarter wear a welcome aspect. They show an, excess of deposits over withdrawals amounting to £390,640. The three preceding quarters of the past financial year all closed with an excess of withdrawals over deposits, and over the whole twelve months that excess amounted to £859,560. .Roughly, in . the last five years depositors, considered collectively, have not been increasing the amounts banked to their credit, but have been withdrawing half their interest. Last year was an exception, for the excess of withdrawals over deposits for 1927-28 amounted to no less a sum than £2,973,931. This will have represented the withdrawal by depositors not only of the. whole of their interest, but of nearly a million and a quarter in addition. No doubt the explanation was provided in the decision on the part of the Government to reduce, from £SOOO to £2OOO, the limit of the deposits upon which interest would be paid. In other words, there will have been large -withdrawals of money which, having been lodged temporarily until investment could bo obtained for it at rates of interest more remunerative than the Savings Bank offered, could not legitimately be described as sayings. These large sums having now been withdrawn, the excess of deposits over withdrawals in the past quarter may be accurately said, ti* be. due to an increase in deposits of small amounts such as may be considered to represent actual savings on the part of wage-earners and people of distinctly limited means. Viewed to that light, the latest quarterly figures are encouraging. The accumulated savings of the people occupy an important place, among the nation's resources.