Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-03-23

The money is invested in municipal and
government bonds and in mortgages on
the big estates which the government pur-
chases to divide up among the people upon
such terms that the purchasers pay 4 or
per cent. At present the yearly deposits
of the post office savings banks amount
TO more than $1500OOO0, and on the 1st of
January 1899, their total accounts approxi-
mated S250O0,0OO, making an average OF
about $3.50 for each account
There are now about 10000 depositors In
the post office savings banks, which, TAX
ing the whole population of New Zealand,
equals one to every four persons, or one
savings bank deposit to every family. On
the average about $4,000 are daily deposit
ed in such banks, and the government an
nually pays out through them more than
three-quarters of a million dollars in In
tereSt.
Deposits as low as one shilling (25 cents)
are taken, and there is an arrangement by
which you can buy twelve penny stamps,
paste them on a card and mail them as
your deposit. Three per cent only is al
lowed on accounts up to 81 600, and 21a per
cent on accounts ranging from $1,000 to
$4,000, but on sums above that no interest
whatever. This restricts the business to
small depoSitOrS.
There are also seven private savings
banks in the colony in which the deposits
amount to about two and one-half million
dollars annually
Cooperative Associations.
New Zealand has its building and loan
associations, though not to the same extent
as the United States. 1t has also all sorts
of cooperative associations among the
farmers. There large stores managed
by stock companies in which hundreds and
sometimes thousands of the customers have
stock This is especially so with the farm
ers mercantile associations, corresponding
somewhat to the grange stores which we
had some time ago in the United states
visited an establishment Of this kind in
Christ Church. 1t had a large capital, and
its manager told me that it paid 10 per cent
to its stockholders 1t is much like one of
our big department stores, with the prices
marked on all articles offered for sale.
Many of the meat-freeZing establishments
which are common here are managed by
stock companies, in which the sheep own
erS are Interested. The most OF them pay
good dividends
The government of New Zealand Is not
only postman, but also acts as telegraph
operator and hello girl"
AS pOStman 1t does as big a business In
proportion as any government on the globe.
1t has more than 100 post offices; it an
nually carries more than 35,OOO,O0O letters
| and about 15,0O0,OO0 newspapers. and it
runs it's post office business at profit. 1t
may be that the profit from the telegraph
system enables it to do this, but at any
rate, with receipts of little more than ST.
100000, it has an annual balance Of some
thing like quarter of million dollars.
The postal rates here are much the same
as in the United States, and the postal &C
commodations in some respects are better.
l refer to the parcels post, by which parcels
| of large size up to eleven pounds be
shipped over the country at low rates, and
also to the postal notes, which be
bought for from half penny up to sxpence
| In denominations of from one shilling Up
| to f5.
The stamps used here are very beautiful.
A new issue was brought out in 1885, being
made from designs furnished under nrize
| offer from the government. Twenty-four
hundred different designs were submitted,
and the best were chosen.
! Telegraph and Telephones.
Nearly every New Zealand post office is
| a telegraph office, telephone Office a saw
| ings bank, government life insurance office
| and money order office, SO you see the
| postman has plenty to do. There now
| government telephones almost everywhere.
| The state has about $4,000 miles of tele-
| graph and telephone wires, and it transmit
| ted in 1899 just about three million mes
| sages. 1t costs only twelve cents to send
a twelve-word telegraph dispatch, with a
| charge Of two cents for each additional
word. There are special rates for press
i messages. The cable rates to Australia are
| low, being from rs cents to $125 for ten
words and the rate to Great Britain is $3.50
| per word, to the United States, about
| $160. AS to the telephones, there are thirty
! one exchanges in New Zealand, with about
| six thousand connections, and the total cos
| of making the same and equippng them
| has been less than one million dollars.
| All these things seem attractive, but there
is another side to the picture. man is
| worth not what he makes, but what he has
| left when his debts are paid. 1t is the same
| with a nation, and New Zealand Is rapidly
rolling up big public debt. In 1899 1t owed
just about 1920 100000. or about $500 per
| head, or 81 500 per family of five. This debt
is increasing. 1t has risen more than $50
per family in the last twelve years. and the
| average taxation today is in the neighbor-
| hood of 500 per family.
Suppose the same conditions to prevail in
| the United States? We should owe sew
| enty-fve million times $500, or 500, 500 600 OO(
"a national debt that would drive every
one of our trust millionaires into the gopher
holes of Canada or the backwoods of Asia
Africa or Europe.
, FRANK G. CARPENTER.