Dunsandel Children Have Best Savings Record

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31112, 15 July 1966, Page 8

Dunsandel Children Have Best Savings Record

Children at the Dunsandel school have a better savings record than those of any other primary school with a roll of more than 150 pupils in the Christchurch postal district. It is not that they saved more than the others last, year, but the average number of deposits they made was the highest. The Post Office Savings Bank recognised the outstanding savings record of the children by presenting a shield and a cheque for £l7 to the school. The presentation was made by the Deputy Chief Postmaster (Mr G. F. Bell) to two Form II pupils, Janet Mackie and John Ruiter. Mr Bell told the children that their savings record during the year had eclipsed that of 255 other schools in the Christchurch postal district with rolls exceeding 150 children. Balance Of £1307 The Dunsandel school has 164 pupils and 114 of them have savings bank accounts. Last year they made an average of 23.7 deposits an

active account and had a total credit balance of £l3Ol. Mr Bell said the Post Office was not interested in how much the children saved but was anxious, as part of their character training to encourage them to develop the habit of thrift. Last year, he said, New Zealand primary schoolchildren in 2167 primary schools held 291,666 accounts with total deposits of £1,690,186. Grants Authorised In recognition of this, the Postmaster-General (Mr Scott) had authorised grants to schools totalling £29,000 for recreational and cultural pursuits. . Among those at Wednesday’s function at Dunsandel were a representative of the Ellesmere County Council (Mr M. Walker), the chairman of the school committee (Mr N. R. Barnett), a representative of the Canterbury Education Board (Mr D. Waghorn), the manager of the Post Office Savings Bank (Mr C. W. Bremner), the district savings organiser (Mr D. Tierney) and the supervisor of school accounts (Mr R. Haddock).