The Waikato Times. TUESDAY, JULY 16, 1878.

Waikato Times, Volume XII, Issue 946, 16 July 1878, Page 2

The Waikato Times.

TUESDAY, JULY 16, 1878.

Equal and exact justice to all men, Of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political. » . * * * * Here shall the Press the People's right ' maintain, Unawed by influence and unbribed by gain.

During the past couple of years, an agitation, commenced in JDunediu, I has been kept up through New Zealand, with the object of introducing in connection with th'e public schools of the colony the system of penny saving's banks which has worked with such admirable results in Btlgium. The object intended was to iuculcate in children habifcs of saving and thrift, by giving them an opportunity of finding out, before the lesson is learned too late, the value of money, and the evil of wasting it on idle extravagance and folly. The Government Savings' Bank receives deposits of not less

than a shilling, which shuts it out from the use of most children. The school banks it is intended should act somewhat in the form of a feeder to the Government Bank, the master of the school receiving the deposits, a penny or more at a time, until the account reaches a shilling when it is entered to the depositor's credit in the Government Savings' Bank. We should have • ' thought the advantages of establish I ing such an institution would have ; be.m too obvious to have provoked opposition, that the only obstacle # to its general adoption would have been the usual apathy with which such matters are mostly

receivod, but it is not so. Tha bread cast npon. the waters by a few I energetic persons in Ironed returned Jifter many last meeting of die Pmird'oC E4ucatioy in Auckland we find,- that -ihere was fan application from Maiiku asking for a ruling, relative to the establishment of a Penny Savings Bank in connection with the school. A similar application was received from the master of the school at Ngaruawahia, and apparently, but for the objections made by the School Inspector, Mr O'Sullivan, who was present at the Board meeting, the applications would have been favorably received. On the matter being referred to that gentleman, he is reported.to have stated " that he objected strongly to the establishment or these banks : Tt could only lead the children to the idea of hoarding, and would tsach children to steal trim their parents. In fact, there were only three sources from which the} 7- could get money: they must either beg from visitors, 1 beg from their parents, or steal. It was not teaching them thrift, it was teaching them hoarding."which was quite different." This opinion appears to have swayedjthe action of the Board, for we find that, after some discussion, the consideration of the subject was I deferred.

Now, we join issue altogether with the Inspector in the view, which he takes of the matter. lb is quite clear there can be no thrift if there is no saving. The difficulty will be, nob to prevent children from becoming sordid which is what, we presume, is intended to be meant by the substitution ot the word " hoarding" for saving, but to get them to save at all. The natural tendeucy in children is far too strong the other way. The cause of half the misery in the world, the hidden skeleton in so many households, is improvidence, the very opposite quality to that thrift which the School Inspector so strongly deprecates. Society in this age, is too far given to anticipate income ever to become unduly given to hoard, and if the savings bank is established to inculcate habits of thrift in the parent what so useful a preparatory step as the institution of penny savings banks for the child. To sro so far as to say that the inclination of the habit in the i child will lead to theft is we think utterly out of reason. The child that would steal to increase its balance in the bank would be quite as likely to steal for the purpose of gratifying its desire v for toyg or sweets or other childish wants, and the experiences of most parents I would go to show that their children can be quite as importunate for pence to spend in such ways, as they conld possibly be for saving money for a better purpose. In the colonies children receive no small amount of money in trifling sums in the course of a year. To teach them the value of the money that passes through their haHds should be our aim, and this they will only learn by being encouraged to save it and then finding how much it will purchase for them that they could never otherwise have expected to obtain. There is no fear that penny savings banks would make the next generation a community of misers. The most it w%uld possibly do, so strong is the inmate tendency to extravagance and improvidence, would be to teach a large proportion of them the value of money, its power and advantages, and how profitably to use and enjoy it. And this after all is the chief object of education. Affect to underrate its influence however much we may, money it must be confessed is the mainspring which moves society, and he who can learn to make money his slave, instead of being its slave himself, will be the successful and prosperous man.