The Warwickshire Herald. — 1891-07-02 (Birmingham, West Midlands, England)

BALFOUR, MP., ON THRIFT.  Mr. A. J. Balfour, M.P., was present on Monday night at the annual meeting of the depositors in the South-Eastern and Metropolitan Railway Companies' Provident Savings Banks, which was held in the large hall of the Cannon-street Hotel. There was a very large attendance of railway employes, who greeted Mr. Balfour's entrance with cheers. The chairman, Sir E. Watkin, M.P., having moved the adoption of the reports of the two banks, which was seconded by Earl Radnor, Mr. Balfour rose to support the resolution. He said it seemed to him that the experiment which had now been tried by the South-Eastern Railway Company for more than 24 years was not Only one of the most successfu: but also one of the moat interesting el. periments that had ever been made in promotine the great social virtue of thrift. The benefit con• bored by the scheme did not consist merely is , finding a perfectly safe investment for the savings of the employe. It gave him what he could not get ' outside that scheme, namely, an investment ir which all trouble was taken off the hands of the investor, and in which he got, with an absolute security, an interest at as high a rate as 4 per cent., with power to withdraw part or the whole of his funds at a moment's notice. He did not 'believe that. the giving of a higher rate of interest than the company need give, had they put their money elsewhere, was -likely to have evil con• sequences. So far from being indiscriminate charity it was an encouragement of thrift, and he had yet to learn that thrift was a virtue no common among the English people that money spent in encouraging it was money thrown away. When first the characteristics of this scheme came uncles his notice he could not help thinking whether it might not be poesible to establish similar schemes for the benefit of other classes of the community besides railway employes—(hear, hear)—and though the difficulties were great he was of opinion that something might be done, especially in our rural districts, where, at all events in certain parts, the working population did not, to any large extent, avail themselves of the advantages of friendly societies. The experiment was begun by the great line over which their chairman so ably presided, but the example he had set had been largely followed. He understood that no less than nine railways had obtained from Parliament the requisite powers for starting institutions of that kind. And the movement begun 21 years ago was still spreading. Each year the number of depositors increased and the amount of savings augmented. He hoped they should see other railways adopting the system, and that they should also see. if not this scheme, some scheme, at all events, founded on the same lines and adapted to meet similar needs, started for other industries and for ether parts of the country, and carrying with it the same blessing which those present had already experienced.  A young woman named Ann Getting, residing at Tividale, died at Dudley Hospital, on Sunday, from burns received under shocking circumstances. Deceased, who had been drinking with her young man, laid down on the sofa near the kitchen lire, and was subsequently found literally roasted alive. The story of the murder of Mr. Leonard on the Pamir appears to have arisen (says a Time' correspondent) from the discovery of a flask and portions of a kit, doubtless belonging to previous travellers. It now seems clear that Mr. Lennard and Mr. Beach,after wintering at Yarkand, marched in the early spring towards the Tagdumbash plateau on the Pamir in search of the oris poln and that they proceeded next to Langer, and then to Sarhad. no further anxiety need be felt about them. Professor D'Arcy W. Thompson has edited an interesting volume of "Studies from the Museum of Zoology in University College, Dundee." The volume consists of the first twelve numbers of a journal in which the zoologists connected with the Dundee University Collegephope to find "an incentive to their own diligence, a way of communication with the outer world, and a means of giving direction and consecutive purpose to all their work." The editor contributes five papers, and the writers associated with him are Miss Mary L. Walker, Professor H. Leboucq, Dr. H. St. John Brooks, Mr. Alexander Meek, and Professor W. K. Parker.