The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-05-29 00:00:00

NATIONAL THRIFT.

In London, on Monday afternoon, a meeting of the
Mansion-house committee appointed at the recent
public conference on the subject of National Thrift
was held in the Venetian Parlour for the purpose of
considering the advisability of communicating with
Her Majesty's Government as to the importance of
taking practical measures to promote and extend
thrift by increasing the number of Post Office savings.
banks and giving facilities for the investment of small
sums in the public funds.

The Earl of Derby presided, and there were also
present, among others, Professor Leone Levi, Dr. B.
W. Richardson, F.R.S., Mr. Blanchard Jerrold, Mr.
G. C. T. Bartley, the Rev. W. L. Blackley, and Mr.
W. J. Soulsby.
Professor Leone Levi said there was a very general
feeling expressed at the conference in favour of issuing
coupons in the public funds for small amounts for sale
at savings-banks to any who might wish to make an
investment in that form. There was also a strong
desire tilt every post-office should be a savings-
bank, and that the restrictions as to the amounts
deposited should be removed. On this latter
point he confessed that he saw more diffi-
culty than upon the others, owing to the expense
incurred by the Post Office upon each transaction. If
every transaction, large or small, cost is., as they
were told it did, the reduction of the minimum amount
deposited would entail considerable expense to the
postal authorities. A committee of the House of
Commons was about to be appointed to investi-
gate the accounts of savings-banks ; for it seemed
that they could not, in the present state of money,
afford to give 3 percent. on deposits.
Mr. Bartley said the Postmaster-General (Mr.
Fawcett) took some part last year in the suggestion
of the advisability of the sale of Consols in small
sums, and he believed that he would not be adverse to
the committee upon that point. He thought the
minimum deposit in the post-office savings-banks
should be reduced to 3d., if not even to a ld., and
that the maximum amount allowed to be held
should be increasedirom 200 to £5OO. These conces-
sions would entail some alterations in the manage-
ment of the savings-bank business, for the great
expense now incurred in each transaction
was by reason of the department being concen-
trated in London, and every item and detail through-
out the country having to go through the metro-
polis. He thought it might easily be arranged that
the savings banks should be locally managed—at all
events to a great and appreciable extent. At present
the net annual profits of the Savings-bank Depart-
ment were £150,000, and the question was whether it
would not be wise to risk some of that by holding out
inducements for an enormously increased trade by
the reduction of the:dminimum sums accepted from de-
positors and by the increase of the total amount
allowed to be received. For his own part he believed
the risk would be very small, but that these conces-
sions would be greatly successful and highly conducive
to thrift.

Lord Derby said he was told that if Savings-banks
were opened in every post-office, as suggested, the
postmasters would be required to give security, and
that they could not do it.

Mr. Bartley said that difficulty would be met by
their being paid better. There were now 13,000 post
offices, but only 5,000 of these were savings-banks ;
and about 300 were added to the latter category
annually.

Lord Derby said, at that rate, it would be 24 or 25
years before each post-office now existing became also
a savings-bank. He did not see the necessity in
London, or in great towns, of having a savings-bank
at each post- office, provided that there were adequate
and convenient arrangements in each place for the
receipt of deposits; but he thought there ought cer-
tainly to be a savings-bank in each village, for they
could hardly expect a man to trudge from his home to
the nearest town—perhaps some miles distant—to pay
in his savings, which he might be only too glad to
deposit at his own village post-office without trouble
or loss of time.

Eventually, on the motion of Professor Levi,
seconded by the Rev. W. L. Blackley, it was re-
solved that a deputation from the Mansion-house
Committee on Thrift be appointed to wait on the
First Lord a the Treasury and the Postmaster-
General to urge the importance of increasing the
number of post-office savings-banks, especially in
villages, and the expediency of reducing the minimum
and increasing the maximum of deposits, and also of
offering facilities for the investment of small sums in
the public securities through the Post Office with a
view to the promotibn and extension of thrift.
A vote of thanks to Lord Derby for presiding closed
the proceedings.