THRIFT AND INVESTMENT.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 November 1929, Page 10

THRIFT AND INVESTMENT.

The verdict of. an Invercargill jury on the charges of false pretences-brought against the representative of the Quarterly Dividends, and National• House Purchase concerns will serve a very good purpose if it warns the- thrifty public against a very unwise use of its funds. The accounts that have been published of the evidence given at the hearing of the charges show that a number- of, people were persuaded to “invest” their savings by the . promise of fantastically large returns. The figures which have been mentioned should have been sufficient in themselves to convince anyone who thought over them carefully of the practical impossibility of “getting rich quick” in the manner they suggested-. Unfortunately, however, there are always people who are rather impatient of ordinary methods of accumulating money, and are easily led to believe that some stroke of luck will enable them to become wealthy. Equally unfortunately it often happens that people who are deluded into such beliefs have worked hard and practised a good deal of self-denial in order to be able to ’become investors. On the whole New Zealanders are not a particularly thrifty people compared with the people of the Old Country. It Is not as if there is a lack of opportunities to turn their thrift to good use, for in a country such as this there is always a demand for capita], and sound investments are available. Every thrifty person who. puts his savings where they can be really safe is-encouraged to continue his thrift, and it; is by means -of this practice that-the prosperity of the nation as well as that of the individual is built up. What thrift accomplishes is strikingly illustrated in a statement made a few weeks ago by Mr. Philip Snowden, Chancellor of the British Exchequer, at the opening of the International Thrift congress. The British, people have always been known as a thrifty race, and their small savings aggregate national figures of very substantial proportions. In fact, the bulk of the loans raised in England by New Zealand are held by people of small means. The returns for last year detailed by Mr. Snowden show that the trustee savings banks held £160,000,009, the Post Office Savings Bank £288,000,000, and building societies £250,000,000, while national savings certificates held by the public represented £500,000,000. The deposits held by the various thrift organisations in Great Britain totalled £1,500,000,000, and the bulk of these funds, according to Mr. Snowden, belonged to manual workers. Even in such difficult times as these the accumulation of funds goes ou steadily. The figures offer sufficient testimony to the value of thrift, and at the same time emphasise the importance of careful dealing with laboriously gathered savings.