The Waipa Post PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY TUESDAY, JULY 11, 1911. THRIFT.

Waipa Post, Volume I, Issue 25, 11 July 1911, Page 2

The Waipa Post PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY TUESDAY, JULY 11, 1911. THRIFT.

IT has often been said, and with some truth, that the younger generation in our Dominion is more or less deficient in habits of thrift. That deficiency, if it exists, and we incline to the opinion that it does, is scarcely to be wondered at when it is remembered that the experience of young New Zealanders leads them to think that the land of their birth has always flowed with milk and honey ; that bad times have never been ; and that such a thing as scarcity of employment was never known. So that, for them, there has never been any incentive, or rather any apparent need of thrift or economy of either time or money. This obtains in all young countries during the “ good times.” And our “ good time ” has been of unprecedented length. Whether in the end, it will prove good for us to have gone on for nearly a quarter of a century without a serious set-back, with its valuable lessons in spite of its inconveniences, is a point that might, easily be argued. Since the beginning of the nineties, we have never “ looked back,” so that the hard lessons of the eighties are pretty well forgotten even by those who faced and fought them, and are undreamed of by the younger generation, with the result that the need for thrift or even the possibility of a “rainy day” never enters into their calculations. Whether the turningpoint aftpr those dread eighties was the result of the Maritime strike, the advent of John Ballance, our frozen meat trade, or Otago’s desperate move to realise something out of her curse of rabbits (which eventually proved such a gold-mine) or later our butter-fat, is, for our present purpose, neither here nor there. We are moved to this reference to the advantage of thrift, by the action of that ever-progressive State institution, our Postal Department, in making a practical move to effectively set up amongst all sections and ages of New Zealanders the spirit of thrift. We refer to the introduction by the Postal Department of home savings bank boxes. The idea, presumably, is to make home savings a serious matter instead of a joke, and thus to give a business side to a family arrangement which always begins with good intentions, but often fails under temporary pressure. These savings bank boxes are impregnable. The important part about the money boxes is that they are delivered locked, and the money deposited therein can only be taken out at the Savings Bank Office where the key is kept, and the money there and then paid into the depositors’ Savings Bank account. So tar, we understand, the scheme has been pretty well patronised, but the Department seems to think it admits ol extension, so, from the Ist of this month, the charge lias been reduced. Hitherto tiie bank demanded 5s for a box. Now a box may lie obtained on payment of is. and a further sum of 2s will

be debited to the account, but that 2s will go back to credit when the box is finally given up. The scheme needs only to be generally known to be widely used. It makes for thrift, and will no doubt act as an aid to systematic economy in thousands of homes, inasmuch as the money once put into the box is out of reach, and must be put through the depositors’ bank account before it is available. The Postal Department is to be congratulated on the innovation.