The Sun.
London, England, 1866-02-13 00:00:00

Post Office Savings Banks.

(From the Eleventh Report of the Postmaster-General.)
The increase in the business of the Post-office
Savings Banks during the year ending on the 31st
March, 1865, was very remarkable, since, though
only 73 additional banks were opened during the
year, the increase in the number of depositors dur-
ing the year was at the rate of 40 per cent., the rate
of increase during the previous year, in which year
161 additional banks were opened, having been at
the rate of 42 per cent.
The increase in the number of depositors in Post-
office Savings Banks is constant, and subject to very
little variation. It is at its highest point in January
and February, and at its lowest point in November
and December of each year, but on the whole year
it amounts, and for a long time has amounted, to a
net increase of from 11,000 to 12,000 depositors per
month, the term " net increase" being used to de-
note the difference between the number of deposi-
tors coming in and the number going out during
the month.

For some time after the first establishment of
Post-office Savings Banks the average amount of
each sum deposited ranged between £3 and £4,
whereas the average amcunt of each sum deposited
in the old savings banks had usually ranged be-
tween £4 and £5. As, however, the nature and ad-
vantages of the Post-office banks became known to
the poorer classes of the community, and as new
banks were opened from time to time in rural dis-
tricts, or in those parts of great cities which were
inhabited by large numbers of the poorer classes, a
gradual reduction in the average amount of each
deposit took place, and that amount has for some
time ranged between £2 and £3, whilst the average
amount of each sum deposited in the old savings
banks has not undergone any marked alteration.
So long as this constant influx of new depositors
continues, and continues to be accompanied by a
gradual fall in the average amount of each sum de-
posited, no marked increase can be expected to take
place in the average amount due to each depositor.
That amount has for some time ranged between
£lO and £ll, and under the operation of existing
circumstances will not reach £ll for some time to
come.

On the whole, it seems reasonable to expect that
the annual increase in the business of Post Office
Savings Banks will for some time be from 130,000
to 140,000 in the number of depositors, and from
£1,400,000 to £1,500,000 in the capital of deposi-
tors.

During the year ending 31st March, 1865, the
capital sum due to all the depositors in Post Office
Savings Banks throughout the kingdom increased at
the rate of 31 per cent. The sum due to depositors
in England and Wales increased at the rate of 32
per cent. ; the sum due to the depositors in Scotland
increased at the rate of 18 per cent., and the sum
due to the depositors in Ireland increased at the rate
of 17 per cent. The rate of increase was, however,
much higher in some counties in England and Wales.
Thus it was 71 per cent. in Cornwall, 57 per cent.
in Dorsetshire, 56 per cent. in Monmouthshire, 69
per cent. in Shropshire, 50 per cent. in Hampshire,
56 per cent. in Leicestershire, 52 per cent. in Wor-
cestershire, and 56 per cent. in Yorkshire.

Although, as I have shown, largely increasing
numbers of persons use the Post Office Savings
Banks fOr a prolonged investment of their savings,
there are in the Post Office Savings Banks, as in the
old savings banks, large numbers of other persons
who use the banks for a short time only as mere
places of security for the money which they do not
require for immediate use. The total sum deposited
up to the 31st March, 1865, inclusive of interest, in
Post Office Banks, was £9,217,000, and of this sum
£3,852,000, or 42 per cent., had been withdrawn up
to that date. The total number of depositors who
had entered up to that date was 690,912, and of
these 166,572, or 24 per cent., had closed their
accounts. •

The labour and the cost of the Post Office Batiks
up to the 31st March, 1865, must be measured, as a
matter of course, not by the number of accounts re-
maining open at that date, but by the whole amount
of business on all accounts opened and closed up to
that date, or, in other words, by the whole number
of transactions to that date. _ _

The cost of each transaction, i.e., of each deposit
or of each -withdrawal, in Post Office Savings Banks,
continued up to the 31st March, 1865, to. be rather
less than sevenpence, to which sum, prior to the
passing of the Act for the establishment of Post
Office Savings Banks, it was estimated that the cost
of each transaction would attain.
From an examination into the occupations of
about 11,000 depositors in Post Office Savings Banks
in all parts of the kingdom, it appears probable that
the 524,340 depositors who had opened accounts in
the Post Office Banks on the 31st March, 1865,
may be thus classified :
Females, male minors, and trustees
Males of independent means, or of no stated occu-
pation, professional men, and their clerks or
assistants
Males engaged in education
5,G92
Tradesmen and their male assistants, farmers, and
clerks of all kinds, except clerks to professional
mechanics,
men, and clerks in general
... 53,756
Mechanics and artisans, journeymen
s,
and artisans, domestic servants, farm
servants,
railway
pen_
policemen,
labourers,
and merchant
sion servants,
sinners, boatmen,
sbeoravtamnen,,
fishermen,seamen .................................. ................... 140,518
Persons employed in the revenue departments 2,570
Persons in the army or navy .......................... 4,682

Total 524,340
Of the whole number of depositors in Post Office
Savings Banks nearly one-third reside within the
limits of the London postal district. Of the whole
number of depositors in the Post Office Banks
throughout the kingdom about 4 per cent. have
balances due to them of £5O and upwards.
In London there was in each year one depositor
to every seven persons; in the rest of England and
Wales one depositor to every 14 persons ; in Scot-