ENCOURAGING THRIFT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9692, 17 January 1910, Page 4

ENCOURAGING THRIFT.

In a simpler and more frugal age the nK>ney box, into which children were encouraged to drop their scpnty coppers, was a familiar object in the homes of the working classes. inere j is some justification for believing 5 that it is no longer as much m evidence, and that the habit of saving the pence in the sure and certain faith that the pounds would look aftor themselves has ceased to be practised as assiduously as in the past. There is no doubt a good excuse for this laxity in the exercise of the morality cf thrift. The temptations to spend have multiplied enormously. The disposition to spend has spread among all classes. We still save, it is true, but we do not save anything like the amount we might easily do without seriously) curtailing the pleasures or luxuries | of life. The Briti;h Government, witha view to ecouragine: the cultivation

of the art of saving among the people, have now adopted the home money box system which has heen so successful in America. Its chief mprit lies in the fact that the key of the box is held by the postal officials, so that its contents are not liable to be raided on a sudden impulse of extravagance. The savings are thus secured against the saver, who might in a weak n ompnt be tempted to lay predatory hands upon them. If the system comes into general use there can be no doubt that it will r.sult in a very large amount being saved that is now practically wasted.