HOLIDAY FINANCE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 1145, 13 September 1913, Page 4

HOLIDAY FINANCE.

THE SENSIBLE PLAN OF THE COTTON PEOPLE,

(By Basil Clarke in the Daily Mail.) How many of us non-millionaires can say that we finance onr holidays well '! It was in Oldham the other night, in a little back room, that 1 saw a “going oil’” club at work. A member came into tbe room, the work of a day still showing on his face. Ho was a mechanic. In his hand ho curried a yellow-backed card and live shillings in silver. These he bore to two fellow-workmen who were sitting with open hooks at a white-lopped table. “Ten shares.” he said, lie gave to one man his card and the live shillings. The sum was entered on the curd and initialled: the second man entered it in the club’s books. The card was handed back to its owner, who disappeared without ti word. “Do vou moan to say,’ I asked tnu bookkeeper, "that he has paid lit 5s week by week, never failing, since die week after last 'wakes’ “Quite right,"' said the bookkeeper. “Sc,ires of 'em do it. Bigger amounts Ilian his, too. some of ’em.” HOLIDAY DIVIDEND. 'The “uoitiu-olf" chili may he run by a workshop or a mill, a public-house or a workmen's chib, a church, a friendly society or a political club, a Sunday school or a 'lad's eliih, or by any oilier person or collection of persons'. Each member takes up “shares,” and each slut re costs sixpence a week. Take live shares and yon must pay live limes sixpence, which is ball a crown, even week for die filly weeks n| the chili s existence. Fail I" |»»,V ” 1 "' "''.'lt’s mstiilmen I and yon must pay a hue m the rate of one halfpenny a share a week lor all share payments 'outstanding. The moneys paid in week bv week are invested to earn a dividend. At the year’s end ibis dividend is declared in terms of pence per share.” and paid out along with cadi member’s ca pita). What the dividend will be depends on the asluteiiess of the club's officials and their management. As to their popularity and the trust, placed in them, perhaps (he best testimonial is the fact that Oldham alone saves for its “wakes” every year by means of these dubs a sum that must be more than £200,000. Oldham lias from .year to year about 300 “going-off” Hubs, VALUE OF THE SAVINGS CLUBS. Is it a natural gift—u gift for saving—lhat causes the textile worker to finance

his holiday so admirably by moans of those “going-off” clubs? Hardly that, I think, 1 believe that at the bottom of all this elaborate machinery for saving is tho worker’s .distrust of his ability to save unaided. But for his “going-off” club his holiday finance would no doubt be as haphazard as is that of most of us. He has discovered that to him u holiday is of vital medicinally. He lias discovered, moreover, that to save privately week by week in a stocking or a, savings bank is to court constant, temptation. So ho has founded a savings club, with all its many pains and penalties upon failure. The “going-off” club is a worthy, and evidently an effectual, instillition. which tho textile worker has established. To tho man with a “clean going-off card”—one showing neither loan nor lapse—l, for one, yield a whole-hearted admiration.