SAVINGS BANKS AND THRIFT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9046, 23 March 1908, Page 4

SAVINGS BANKS AND THRIFT.

Mr W. P. Reeves, High Commissioner for the domirr.on, in an article in the "Financial Review of Reviews," cites, amongst other things, the growth of deposits in the savings banks of the dominion, in answer to the question as to whether the oldage pension system has diminished thrift. It is unlikely that the pensions would affect thrift, except in those who are pensioners, and the fact that they requre th<; pension may as a rule be taken to indicate that they are practically beyond the possibility of thrift. With little beyond 10s, or less, a week, thrift would make little appreciable difference in their fortunss. Those who are not eligible for the pension are thrifty or unthrifty according to disposition regardless of the prospective benefits of the monthly old-age dole by the Stare. In regard to the savings banks deposits, some doubt has recently been thrown upon the reliability of these as an accurate guage of thrift. It has been pointed out that a great many small tradesmen are using the savings banks as a cheap means of having their accounts kept, and of securing interest at the same time. The ordinary banks make a charge for keeping current accounts, and do not pay interest except upon fixed deposits, so that inducements are offered to persons in a small way of business to use the Government institution for business purposes. It would bp well if for general information these accounts were eliminated from the periodic returns of deposits, or set out in a separate table. We should then get a more accurate knowledge of the thrift of the people for whom the savings banks were especially established.