Weekly News. — 1891-07-02 (Blandford, Dorset, England)

BALTOUR, M.P., 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 ado. tion of the reports of the two banks, which was seconded by Earlitadnor, Mr. Balfour rose to support the resolution. He said it seemed to him that the experiment which had now been tried by the Soirh-Eastern Railway Company for more than 20 years was not only oae of the most successful but also one of the most interesting experiments that had ever been made in promoting the-great social virtue of thrift. The benefit conferred by the scheme did not consist merely in 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 in 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, w;ei likely to have evil consequenus. So far from being indiscriminate charity it was an encouragement of thrift, and he had yet to learn that thrift was a virtue so common among the English people that money spent in encouraging it was money thrown away. When first the characteristics of this scheme came under his notice he could not help thinking whether it inigA not be possible to establish similar schemes for the benefit of other classes of the community besidea 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 themseives of the advantages or frieedly societies. She experiment was begun by the great line over which their chairman so ably presided, but the example he bad set had been largely followed- He understood that no less thee nine railways ha 4 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 c.ther industries and for other parts of the country,, and carrying with it the same bit ssing which those present had already experienced.  A young woman named Ann Getting, residiaig 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 fire, and Waa subsequently found literally roasted alive. The story of the murder of Mr. Lennard on the Pamir appears to have arisen (says a Tuaet correspondent) from the discovery of a flask toad portions of a kit, doubtless belonging to previous travellers. It new seems clear that Mr. Lennard and Mr. Deach,after wintering at Yarkaad, marched in the eilrly spring towards the Tagdumbash plateau on the Pamir in search of the °cis poll, and that they proceeded next to Langar, and then to Sarbad, no further anxiety need be felt about them.  :k.thSilur (ea, ring restaurant hurriedly): "Aw, I y. (al a man get a dwink here?" Waiter (dryly): • Yes; where's the man?" Sweet and bitter : A girl is sweet, but, oh! how bitter The same girl is when her dress don't fit her! Santo: ,-I see an account in this paper of a tivn eating 10Ibs. of ice." Rodd : "That's the worst case of cold feat I've ever heard of." "Dear me!" said old Mr. Boggs, hesitatingly, "I know I've forgotten something, but, for the life of me, 1 can't remember what it is."