The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1858-10-07

correctly in the Pass-book. Now, If you look through your
occasion to introduce some useful reforms into your domestic ex-
penditure But if you are too lazy to do this, hand the book to
i your wife. and she viii do il for you, "
The Banking House Of Messrs. Bishop & Co. is
one in which, we think, public confidence can
safely be reposed. The principals in it are both
men of the highest integrity. and possessed of that
keen Judgment and business sagacity which is de-
manded of bankers, and are, moreover, intimately
identified with the interests of the city and islands.
We have heard it raised as an objection that its
capital is limited and the senior partner is en-
gagged in active business, and therefore cannot be
expected to devote himself to the affairs of the
bank, and, being a partner, may at times seek
and obtain greater facilities or credits than others.
1t is easy, we are aware, to raise objections; but
the mere fact of one of the partners being in other
business can make no valid objection. Scarcely
a bank exists in any country, in which the direc-
tors are not men in active business and traders,
and no bank which is conducted on sound and
upright principles will ever grant greater facili-
ties to a director or partner than to others of
equal credit and standing.
Thus far we understand that the bank is doing
we'll, and has the confidence and businessof many
of our leading firms. But in such a place as this,
where everybody has always been in the habit of
doing his own business in his own way, it must
take time to effect change. Promissory business
notes have, from the very nature in which busi-
ness has been here conducted, always met with
more or less laxity in payment. This. to be sure.
is a great fault in our business transactions but
to insist on an immediate change from the former
loose mode to prompt payments at bank will en-
gender ill-feeling between the buyer and seller.
Bank accounts should always be promptly settled
when due, for promptness is the only safe rule
on which a bank can be conducted. Now the
simple remedy is here No notes or bills should
be made collectable by the bank without the mu-
tual consent of both parties to the notes. Where
it is intended to make notes payable at a bank,
they should distinctly embody that provision
none others should be passed into the bank for
collection. Experience, which is the best teacher,
will, we are confident, show that a bank is an in
s%titution which it is for the interests of our bust
ness men to support, which will be mutually adj
vantageous to them and the bank.
OF the savings branch of Messrs. Bishops Co.'S
Bank we must say a few words. We have always
been strongly in favor of the government being
the pioneer in the establishment of our first saw
ings Institution, and its guardian. and have urged
them time and again to undertake it; but large
bodies always move slowly, and we must give in
dividuals credit for opening an institution of pub
lie benefit, which cannot for years be other than a
care and labor without remuneration. The ice is,
however, broken, and a savings bank is establish
ed, where all who wish can deposit thoir waekly
earnings, without fear of being stolen or lost.
Erery mechanic and clerk should open an account
at the savings bank. 1t may be but a dollar or two a
week that can be spared at first from their earn
ings, but habit will create economy and thrift.
Many a young man who has had to work his way
up without other help than his industry, has re-
! ceived his first lift from the sum he has laid by in
a savings bank. A few hundred dollars TO a
young man who knows how to use it may, at
the moment he finds an opening. and wishes to
embark in business. launch him safely ON the
ocean of success.
Few who have not made the calculation are
aware of the rapidity with which money accumu-
lates at compound interest. Interest alone has
built up the fortunes of many. The legal rate of
interest here is twelve per cent. per annum. The
following examples will illustrate how fast money
accumulates when at compound interest. Any
sum at interest at twelve per cent. will double it
self every six years and two months. The sum of
$500, placed at interest for the benefit of a minor,
will at the end of ten years, have amounted to
S61S 95. The same sum of $500, placed at in
terest for the benefit of a child to be paid to him
when arriving at age, will have amounted to
about $1,000. But perhaps the most striking il
lustration of accumulation is the following, which
we quote from the American Encyclopedia:
Interest is the allowance made for the loan n forbearapce of
certain time this allowance being generally estimated at 50
much per cent per annum. that is, so much for the use OF 500
a year Interest is either simple or compound. Simple interest
time Of The loan. The princip al is the r money! envy le NJ IT The " sum
paid for the use of it is The interest. The accumulation of money.
years, is exceedingly rapid and in some cases appears truly
est at the birth Of Christ would, II in isio. have amounted to a
sum exceeding in value three hundred and fny-seven millions
a, large as This earth, while at simple interest it would have
amounted during the same period to only seven shiIlngs seven
and three-qsarters pence Us 73d)
The rate of interest which is to be paid or de-
posted at the savings bank is eight per cent. per
is paid by any similar institution in America or
England. Even at this rate, sums left at interest
in the bank will be doubled every eight years.
1t is singular how the simple act of depositing
in a savings bank creates a desire in a depositor
to husband his means and accumulate deposits.
This desire should be encouraged, but, if not con-
trolled and if carried TO excess, makes one a miser.
We think we can safely a savings in
~stitution to all, without fear of creating any
misers among us. We see around us many in
stances where a little systematic providence or
foresight might have placed families in better cir
cumstances, where they could be enjoying more
of the comforts and conveniences of life, while re-
ceiving the same salary or income; where a few
laid by might, perhaps, secure, at a
forced auction sale, a title deed to a dwelling,
and thus reduce largely the expenses of living.
For instance, a man, who pays twenty five dollars
a month for the dwelling he occupies, finds the
opportunity to buy the same property for $1,000,
having laid by a few hundreds, enough to secure
the purchase, he would by this transaction reduce