The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1929. ENCOURAGING THRIFT.

Hokitika Guardian, 22 November 1929, Page 4

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1929. ENCOURAGING THRIFT.

Thu encouragement of thrift is by no means a modern gospel, but thrift is more essential now than ever it was. And the subject is having a great deal of national and international attention. Mr I*. Snowdon, who has so distinguished himself since taking office with the Labour Government, is a sturdy advocate of thrift. A London commercial journal says that the spep'-h ol Mr Snowden at the opening of the International Thrift {'onference in London last month was at once an encouragement to the various organisations whose great objective is to foster the saving habit among their own people, and a tribute to the British nation in particular for wlmf all must readily admit is a most creditable example of national thrift. To

have increased their savings to a very

considerable extent ima-time pf. acute d.nuustrral - depression 1 " such . ‘as ' this country has experienced during the last ten years is a really meritorious achievement, and' wiiat’ is even more stimulating is tne sure conviction that, if this degree oftiiiiit endeavour continues in tnese years of siow and laborious recovery, British industry will be more strongly.dipped every year by ( tne larger amount or capital available lor its use. As Mr Snowden stated, in the trustee savings banks there was last year a total deposit of just under £lGj million, which is £9 million more .mm in 1927; deposits in the Post Office Savings'Banks amounted' to over £2BB. .million, which df&o showed an increase over the previous veari and the''funds jf building societies at no lesfc than - £203 million show an advance within •me year of £37 million. The most striking testmonv to the thrift of the dritish people, however, is the remarkible growth in the National Savings Jertincate form of investment. Up to the present time approximately 903 million of these certificates have been sold, and there is standing to the credit of depositors in these certiiicates the huge sum of £SOO million. Jf other savings organisations are included the total deposits in Great Britain amount to no iess than £l,ooo million, die bulk of which belongs to people of me labouring classes. This last menJoned fact is distinctly gratifying, and should he an incentive to the middle md the upper classes, with their much larger financial resources, to spend wisely and well. There is not the slightest doubt that if, from the national point of view, the habit of thrift is to be of the greatest value, 'saving must lie accompanied by less wasteful spending, and this, of course, applies to all those classes of the community -Who have some 'financial margin beyond the provision of the hare necessities of life. That as a nation we need to be particularly thrifty at this time is shown by the fact that the great problem, equipping our industries for world competition to-day will heed large capital resources for its solution, and the position is eirfI phasised when it is borne in mind that, if the changed value of money is taken into calculation, the total volume of savings in Great Britain to-day is actually less than it was before the war, in spite of the great progress made in recent years by the National Savings u.dvement and other thrift organisations. ’lTie experience at Home is no doubt being reproduced in a minor key , here, and a concerted movement towards organising a. thrift campaign would ho good for the countrv. During the war period, there was the issue of war saving certiiicates, lint though the advantages of thrift were thereby inculcated the lesson appears to have been lost. Tn the Auckland district, the Savings Hank is carrying on a most useful campaign of the Mature referred to among school children which is of course a good place to begin. Generally, however, habits of thrift are good for folk of all ages, and they might well he practiced more generally.