The Temuka Leader TUESDAY, JANUARY 10, 1882.

Temuka Leader, Issue 902, 10 January 1882, Page 2

The Temuka Leader TUESDAY, JANUARY 10, 1882.

One would think that abo’ e all, other institutions the Post Office Savings Bank would deal justly with its customers. Obviously the object for which it was instituted was to encourage thrifty habits in persons of small weekly incomes, and to provide for s tfieni a safe place in which to deposit their savings, and there is no doubt that it has done a vast amount of good in that direction. We fully recognise its utility so far, but we think that considering the low rate of interest it allows, it ought'to give to its customers every farthing of interest t due to them. It does not do this and it is in this respect that we find fault with it. The rate of interest it allows is 44 per cent for a auni not exceeding £2OO ’but it will not pay any interest except from the beginning of the month subsequent to the money being lodged with it. For instance if a man lodges £2OO in the Post Office Savings Bank on the sth of January 1882 and dp«s not disturb it till the sth of January 1883, he naturally thinks that it has been twelve months in the Bank and that he is entitled to 4£ per cent interest. He wiilj however, find put his mistake, for no interest is allowed for the month of January. If he allowed it to run on till toe 26th of February 1883 he would be no better oflE.for there is no interest allowed for any part of a month. In this way interest on the months of January and February will not be given becaus e five days of January were spent before the lodgment was made and, it wanted two days of the end of February when the money was withdrawn. Thus a person who has money in the Savings Bank actually rets not a penny interest for two months less seven days, and at per cent that would mean a loss to him of about £1 IQp. Our informaidon is derived from the actual experience of a customer of the Savings Bank who deposited in it a certain sum op the 12th of November 1880 and withdrew it on the 17th of December 1881. Naturally enough he thought he was entitled to 12. months interest,the money having been in the bank more' than that time, but he found, to his surprise, that he only got credit for 11 months. Now we do nbt think that this is fair, although we are fully satisfied that it is with no ‘‘felonious intent” that the interest is not allowed, The object no doubt must be to save clerical labor, but we think that justice is not dene to those who lose by it. We think that in cases where money has been left in the hands of the Bank for more than 12 months interest ought to be paid, even if one of twelve months is made up of a part of two months, whatever might be done with regard to a few days. The rate of interest allowed is very small, and consequently every penny of it should be paid more especially as the Savings Bank’s customers are principally composed of persons to v-hom a few shillings is of some consideration.

A recent telegram conveyed to us the startling intelligence that the British Government was about tp sell Gibraltar to the Spanish Government. Of cpprae any one who knows the importance this barren rock to the prestige apd pptyer of England, could not believe that there was any possibility of such an event; coming to' pass. There was, howevei, some ground for the rumor. is most anxious to regain possession of Gibraltar, and as she has despaired of retaking it, by taki li y 0 ii ves °f many English and sacrificing the lives’ of many of her own, a new idea has obtained in her capital "ity, end that's to buy it from the British Crown. For the purpose of carrying out this idea, a movement lias been set on font to collect, a sufficient sum, one banker heading the list with £IO,OOO. There appears no disposition on tiie part of however, to part with Gibraltar. An English paper say's It is, perhaps, the most important of all our Crown Colonies, not excepting Malta, which would not long be ours if we did nct hold the mouth of the Mediterranean. Its loss by treaty, sale, or capture would be a first great blow to our national prestige no less th&n to our power in Europe. Degradation in the eyes of the whole world would inevitably follow. The Minister who recommended its cession would be in danger of.impeachment, The commander who suffered it to fall into a.i enemy’s hands might meet the fate whiph overtook Admiral Byng. Spain may therefore consider the day of. recovery still indefinite!}' postponed. After all, although the Bock may be said to stand on Spanish ground. Spain dul, not actually liolHT lliis impregnable natural fortress for more than three or lour cep-

turies. It was Moorish till the fifteenth, and in the beginning of the eighteenth it became British."