Post Office Savings Bank.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVI, Issue 96, 27 April 1904, Page 4

Post Office Savings Bank.

RATES OF INTEREST. VIEW OF SIR J. WARD. In view of Mr Maasey's remarks in hiß Milton speech as to the low rate of interest in tire Post Office Savings Bank, Sir Joseph Ward was asked, on bis arrival in Ohristehurch, whether there was any likelihood of the rate • of interest on savings tank deposits being raised in view of the tightening of the money market, -and the general rise in interest. The Colonial Treasurer replied that if the Government were to raise the rate of interest it would be bound to affect the money market. m the direction of making it more restrictive for. the very retain that, it would make money more costly If the Goivernment decided to raise the savings bank rate of interest the pu'bSic blanks, in order to preserve their business, would be bound in turn to raise their deposit rates, the result. being that their lending rates would . also bo; increased, and it would follow that mortgage rates would bo advanced by those who had money to lend. In his opinion it would be a very bad thing for the colony as a whole if Bucil a policy were adopted. He had not gone into the figures, but. would do so in a day or two, to see what such a proposal would really mean to those who had money on deposit, in the Government Savings Hank, as well as the effect it would have upon the money market of the colony. Generally, his own opinion was that the proposal, unless carefully dealt with, would prove very expensive. When the trade of the colony was in a flourishing condition (and there was admittedly a general condition of prosperity throughout the colony) the object of those who controlled public opinion should be in the direction of preserving the interests of all classes, and of letting well alone, or at least not doing anything that would be calculated to give the colony, through its industries, a backward turn.