IRISH THRIFT.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 92, 13 December 1912, Page 4

IRISH THRIFT.

According to an Irish correspondent, though Ireland is poor, and is only now emerging, and although the Irish character (at any rate in the novel and on the stage 1 ) is associated with the reckless expenditure of borrowed money, there has always been a remarkable amount of thrift. Even in the poorest districts and the worst times, money has somehow always been saved, and these savings were usually hoarded—-as in France —hidden away in stockings, beds, cupboards. che.sfs, or holes in the ground.

T'utier rack-rents no tenant farmer dared to show any sign oi comfort in his home or dress lest his rent should he raised, and lids fact may account for the innumerable little hoards which leave enabled some four million;; of Irish men and Irish women Lo pay their passage money to America. Nor is this system of hoarding by any means extinguished. Habits Jive long and (lit l bard. To convert this idle money into productive capital is one of the most fruitless tasks of civilisation, but to accelerate the process successfully those responsible for the management of our finances (including the Post Office Savings Bank) should remember that peasants and agricultural labourers are naturally and reasonably suspicions. It is better, they think, to keep a small bag of money in a place of safety than to run the risk of losing it altogether for the sake of interest.