Post Office Sayings Bank

Feilding Star, Volume IX, Issue 126, 23 May 1888, Page 3

Post Office Sayings Bank

One of the most reliable means of judging as to the general financial state of residents of the Colony is afforded by the annual returns of the Post Office Savings Bank. It is in this that the wage»earmng class mainly place their savings, and the returns form a kind of barometer indicating whether prosperity or adversity is prevailing so far as the Hia-jortty are concerned. Statistics take ■o account of individual cases, but serve admirably to show how the community, as a whole, is situated. The returns for last year are just to hand, and they certainly pro*e that the depression is rapidly passing away. At the end of 1886 the total amount steading to the credit of all accounts was £1,615,979. At the end of 1887 this sum was increased by £197,105. The average amount standing to the credit of each account had also increased from £21 11? 8d to £22 14s lOd, and the number of accounts remaining open had. increased from 74,871 to 79,724 But the most striking feature in the return is the fact that while in 1886 the withdrawals exceeded the deposits by £87,881, in 1887 the position was re fersed, and the deposits exceeded the withdrawals by no less than £129,741. This shows clearly that while a lar^e number were forced to use their earnings during the former year, a much larger number were last year enabled to add to their savings.