PENNY INVESTMENTS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 22, 26 January 1881, Page 4

PENNY INVESTMENTS.

{Daily Telegraph, November 9.) It will be seen from ike PostmasterGeneral's notification published yesterday, that the experiment announced last session of receiving email deposits in postage stamps has been remarkably successful. At the Post Office Savings Bank no sum of less than a shilling has hitherto been accepted, and apparently a good many people were not i so indoctrinated in habits of thrift as to put by the the humble pennies in coin, and keep them safely until the shilling limit was reached. Hence the idea of postage stamps, which are as good as money to the Post Office, and not so temptingly easy to spend as coins are to the humble capitalist whose frugal habits may chance to sit lightly upon him. The arrangement made to attract these deposits is a very Bimple one. Forms are given out to applicants gratis in the similitude 'df cheques, but divided into twelve small spaces each to bold a stamp, and when one foim has thus been filled up it will be received as the deposit of a shilling. As showing how successful the experiment has been, it is announced that, although it has only been in operation for[seven weeks, in ten selected counties no fewer than seven thousand new accounts have been opened. It is fair to conclude that if the arrangement extended over the entire country the number of accounts would increase) io proportion, particularly as the districts: cbbsen for triaiwere mainly agricultural, and contained no dense aggregations of humanity, such as Middlesex, Lancashire, or Lanarkshire. The experiment is interesting enough to deserve careful watching, for the sinister prediction of alarmists that the theft of 'stamps would be encouraged by the regulation has still to be tested. Whether there is any foundation for this apprehension we shall have better means of judgiog when the system is extended to the whole Kingdom, as it will be on and after Monday next. {Daily Newt, November 9 ) Certainly few experiments in national economy have met with success so rapid and so marked as the PostmasterGeneral's scheme for penny investments. On September 13th the plan of saving by penny stamps came into operation, and was tried in ten counties—six in England and two each in Scotland and Ireland. So great has been the success of the experiment that ia the short time of seven weeks it has proved itself a public benefit, and it has been now determined to extend its operations immediately to the whole country. On and after Monday next at every post office in the United 'Kingdom forms will be gratuitously | given to whoever may chooße to apply ■for them, on which penny postage stamps may be from time to time ; affixed, as snits the meanß and incliria- ! tion of the investor, until the number, of twelve is reached. The form, which' reeemblea atn ordinary cheijue divided' into twelve section*, will then be rie- ' ceired as a deposit in the Post Office j Savings Banks. These banks have not ' hitherto taken suthb . under «' shilling;; owing to the trouble and expeiis^ cf; receiving, entering, and giving receipts \ for such small investments. No small , waste of time and trouble would also ! be caused by the frugal investor having to visit the post-office every time he found he had a penny or two to spare. Yet the pennies are not found to be . safely lodged or prudently invested in the pocket even of the thrifty-minded. By the new arrangement the stray | copper can be|turned into penny currency — a postage stamp — at once, andi placed beyond the reach of extravagant impulse. During the short period of trial since September 13th, more than 14 000 of these forms have : been filled up and received at the local branch offices, and thence transmitted to the General Post Office. This is a ' sufficient indication of the need Which existed in the country for assistance in j effecting small savings, and of the ! acceptability of the new plan. It is [ too, a hopeful ei*>n of a popular desire ; to cultivate thrifty habits, for which, as i a rule, the natives of these islands are : not remarkable. It is a stimulus given ' to the most useful, though not enticing < practice of loflkiflgr after the pM<&. ;