NEW PLYMOUTH SAVINGS BANK.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 May 1930, Page 8

NEW PLYMOUTH SAVINGS BANK.

The animal report of the president of the trustees of the New Plymouth Savings Bank (Mr. Richard Cock) is a statement o' more tha. average importance to the districts in which the institute a operates. The bank is peculiarly a. New Plymouth institution, and the fact that the annual meeting yesterday was the eightieth in its history is proof that it has been in existence nearly as long as the town itself. It took courage to found a savings ank when the settlement was but ten years old, and with the vicissitudes that attended the development of the district the growth of the savings bank was necessarily slow. For many years its policy was one of intense conservatism, and it was not until Mr. Cock became president that stagnation was changed to real progress. He has been loyally supported by the deputy-president (Mr. G. W. Browne) and the other members «. the board of trustees, all of whom, it may be added, give their services practically without remuneration. For the past decade the bank’s history has been one of steady progress. For the year that has just closed deposits were £3137,531 as against £285,044 last year, an increase of £82,487. The figures in regard to withdrawals were £298,993, an increase of

£58,842 over the previous year, the excess of deposits over withdrawals being £68,538. Considering that unemployment was fairly prevalent last year Mr. Cock’s optimism in yard to the future seems well placed. The bank invests the greater portiin of its funds in mortgages on local properties. It has £354,252 invested in this manner, and only in three cases was interest in arrears at the end of the year, the amounts involved being less than £45. Such a record speaks volumes for the care exercised n granting loans and for the supervision of the bank’s interests generally. Incidentally it is a fine tribute to the solvency of the district. As an agency for thrift the bank has thoroughly justified the hopes of its founders, though Mr. Cock once more appealed to parents and guardians to inculcate habits of prudence among children by means of the , enny d posit branch of the bank. Within a few weeks the bank will be operath.g in premises of which it is the owner. The location and style of the new building manifest again the progressive spirit that dominates its policy, and it a. ill be a striki ■ addition to the architecture of the town. From every point of view the institution is one of which any district could feel proud. To have had the honour of guiding it to unparalleled success will be the great reward of the president and his fellow trustees.