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-------, TRUSTEE SAVINGS BANKS.

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TRUSTEE SAVINGS BANKS. The importance of Savings Banks, and their Influence on the well-being of very large lumbers of the working and even the middle Masses, can hardly be over-estimated. The practice of thrift is at the bottom of all National as well as personal prosperity. The country in which the labouring people habitually spend all their wages, even when fchege are at the highest rate, cannot be reg-mled 811 being in a satisfactory condition. The pro- gress of the working classes themselves depends for less on the rate of wages—which in many instances are wastrd when in excess of the actual requirements of their daily life than On their careful expenditnre" and thrifty ftnnag*ment, with that practice of habitual which enables every man, however humble his means, to better his position. The trustee savings banks that have been established for many years, though too frc- quently faulty in their management, and in 80IDe instances disastrous to thrir depositors, hare in their time afforded the opportunity of husbanding their savings to many thousands of persons. At the piesent time there are no less than forty-five millions of money, *lm<>st exclusively that of the working classes, invested in these banks. Their 8,lvency and good management are, there- fore, mittors of the highest national impor- tance. Nevertheless, it is known to every- one who takes an interest in these subjects that the trustee savings banks do not offer ^byjlnte security, although the low rate of interest-namely, 2! per cent.—is compatible and should be accompanied by, absolute and perfect 'security. As the Post office Savings banks offer the same rate of interest, "re much more convenient to the depositor in their mode of working, offer far greater facilities for the deposit and withdrawal of money, and at the same time afford the most Perfect security existing in the whole world — that of the solvency of the British nation as represented by Her Majesty's Government— it may seem to many surprising that any persons should have recourse to trustee savings banks, when they can avail themselves of the facilities afforde 1 by the nearest jKut-office. The reason is not perhaps far to seek. Few take the trouble to think; they are led •Tray by the glamour of gr"at names. The local magnate who owns half the county, the Neighbouring city, and all its appurtenances, is one of the trustees of the city savings bank and the prospectus is issued in terms which imply that the security is guaranteed by the Government stating that all the funds are lnrested in Government security, although there is no guarantee that a large proportion may not be misapplied in place of being invested. These considerations prevail, and there is to the ordinary investor something much more dignified and imposing in the truatee savings bank, with its plate glass windows, long list of affluent trustees, and ^ell-dressed officials, than in the Post-office savings bank at the grocer's shop, where the money is taken by the telegraph clerk—often a girl not out of her teens—and thrown care- lessly into the till along with the pennies re- ceived for postage stamps. Nevertheless, there is this important distinction—the trustee banks do dot afford that absolute security to the depositors which the Post-office Savings Bank unquestionably offers. The trustees in many cases have not done their duty. They have allowed the banks to be defrauded by dishonest officials for years, by clumsy thefts which the most ordinary precaution would have immediately brought to light. A t the Cardiff Bank £30,000 of the depositor's money was stolen by one of the officers by means so patent that only through extreme negligence on the part of the trustees could they have been over- loukel. At the Macclesfield Bank, again, every opportunity was afforded to a junior clerk to steal, and, although he only took £4000, he might have taken much more. In many other cases the audit as prescribed by the Government has not been carried out. In some cases the actual thieves have been punished, but the trustees whose inefficiency and inactivity led to the opportunities which gave rise to "the frauds, have escaped, leaving the losses to fall upon the innocent depositors. It is a relief to turn from these unsatis- factory institutions to the Post-office Savings Banks, which take sums as low as Is. which pay an interest of 2! per cent., or 6d. per annum for every sovereign invested which offer, as we have said, undeniable security, and which are so constituted that any pecu- lation or theft of an official cannot fall upon the depositors. With such advantages before them, depjsitors in ordinary savings banks have only themselves to thank, if they prefer the insecurity of irresponsible trustees to the absolute security and immunity from loss that is offered by the Government through the Post-office Savings Bank.—The Queen.

STAMMERING.

---■'A ,-,.. -,TIDINESS.

FURZE FOR STOCK.

--'-------_-THE 1891 NATIONAL…

LOCAL FAIJRS FOR AUGUST,

AN INTERESTING LETTER.

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.-----'" CARMARTHEN POST OFFICE.