SAVINGS BANKS.] P S T-0 F F I C E 573 transmission of savings from all parts of the country to a central savings bank to be established in London. A Bill to that effect was brought into the House of Commons by Mr Whitbread, but it failed to receive adequate sup port, and was withdrawn. When Mr Sykes revived the proposal of 1807 the number of savings banks managed by trustees was 638, but of these about 350 were open only for a few hours on a single day of the week. Only twenty throughout the kingdom were open daily. Twenty- four towns containing upwards of ten thousand inhabitants each were without any savings bank. Fourteen entire counties were without any. In the existing banks the average amount of a deposit was 4, 6s. 5d. Mr Gladstone s Bill entitled " An Act to grant addi tional facilities for depositing small savings at interest, with the security of Government for the due repayment thereof" received the royal assent on the 17th of May 1861, and was brought into operation on the 16th of Sep tember following. The banks first opened were situated in places theretofore unprovided. In February 1862 the Act was brought into operation both in Scotland and in Ireland. Within two years nearly all the money -order offices of the United Kingdom became savings banks; about 367,000 new deposit accounts were opened, repre senting an aggregate payment of 4,702,000, including a sum of more than 500,000 transferred from trustee sav ings banks the accounts of which were closed. At the end of 1863 the number of accounts in the post-office banks was 319,669, with an aggregate deposit of 3,377,480. The average amount of each deposit was 3, 2s. lid. In 1867 the number of post-office savings banks in the United Kingdom was 3629, that of depositors in them 854,983, the amount standing to their credit 9,749,929. The average amount of each deposit was about 2, 18s. At the end of 1878 there were in the United Kingdom 5831 post-office savings banks ; the number of depositors was 1,892,756 ; and the amount standing to their credit, inclusive of interest, was 30,411,563. At the end of 1882 the number of banks was 6999, the number of depo sitors 2,858,976, and the amount standing to their credit 39,037,821. This sum was increased at the end of the ordinary financial year, 31st March 1883 (the savings banks accounts being made up, in conformity with the Act of 1861, to 31st December), to 40,087,000. The average amount of each deposit was about 2, as against 4, 6s. 5d. in the trustee savings banks prior to the passing of the Act of 1861. On 31st December 1883 the number of depositors was 3,105,642, and the aggregate amount standing to their credit (including interest) was 41,768,808 ; the amount of expenses remaining unpaid was about 11,000. The aggregate value of securities and amount of cash in the hands of the national debt commissioners was 43,294,949. The amount of cash in the hands of Her Majesty s post master-general was 316,853. The aggregate assets were 43,697,932. The surplus of assets over liabilities was 1,918,116. At the beginning of 1884 the total amount received from depositors, including interest, stood at 173,660,388, the total amount repaid to depositors at 131,891,580. The aggregate number of deposits from the outset of postal savings banks was 62,154,832, that of withdrawals 21,612,727, the number of accounts opened 9,225,575, that of accounts closed 6,119,933, that of accounts remaining open 3,105,642. The total cost of these banks was 2,698,547. The aggregate number of transactions of all kinds was 83,767,559. The average cost of each transaction was 7 T 7 T7 d. It marks the accuracy of the Government actuaries to note that, prior to the pass ing of the Savings Banks Act of 1861, the estimated cost of each transaction thereunder was stated at 7d. Any depositor in the post-office savings bank can invest Invest- his deposit in Government stock by making proper appli- nient in cation to the controller of the savings bank department, Gov< ; rn London, provided that the sum be not less than 10, or si^k. than the amount of the current price of 10 stock together with the commission, whichever sum is the smaller ; not more than 100 stock can be credited to an account in any year ending 31st December, or 300 stock in all. Within seven days from the receipt of the application the depositor s account is charged with the current price of the stock purchased, with the commission, the de positor receiving an investment certificate as evidence of the transfer. As to investments in stock, the postmaster-general re ports in 1884 that the total amount of Government stock on 31st December 1883 standing to the credit of depositors was 1,519,983 held by 20,767 persons, against 1,143,717 held by 16,609 persons in 1882, an increase of 376,266 in amount and of 4158 in the number of stockholders. The average amount of stock held by each person at the end of the year was 73, 3s. 10d., as compared with 68, 17s. 3d. in 1882. During the seven years 1877 to 1883, inclusive, the average sum annually paid into the exchequer (under 14 of the Act above named) as the excess of accruing interest was 127,192. The apportionment of the outstanding accounts and their relation in each part of the United Kingdom to the population, respectively, stood as follows at the close of each of the years 1881, 1882, and 1883 1 : TABLE XIII. Number and Amount of Open Accounts in Post- Office Savings Banks. Year 1SS1. Year 1882. No. Amount. 2 No. Amount. 2 England 2,318,113 . 87,054 5,779 90,566 97,100 232,670,307 1,016,920 84,183 699,688 1,723,395 I 2,643,785 108,701 106,490 V 39,037,821 Wales Small islands Scotland . Ireland Total . .. . 2,607,612 36,194,495 2,858,976 39,037,821 Year 1SS3. No. Amount with Interest. Proportion to Popula tion. Average of each Deposit. England, Wales, and ad- 2,874,458") 116,208 114,976) 41,768,808 (1 to9
1 to 33
( 1 to 44 13 10 6 753 17 16 11 Scotland Total 3,105,642 During the year 1883 nearly two millions and three quarters sterling (2,730,987) of postal savings bank deposits were made in excess of those of the year 1882. Only seven small trustee savings banks were closed during the year 1883. During that year 323 new postal savings banks were opened in England and Wales, 33 in Scotland, and 14 in Ireland. At the close of the year the total number for the United Kingdom was 7369. On 31st March 1884 that number was increased to 7475. The year 1874 counts among the flourishing years of trade, 1884 among the depressed years. But since 1874 the aggregate amount of savings deposits in postal banks has very nearly doubled without any noticeable diminution in the business transacted by the trustee savings banks, and the number of depositors has also nearly doubled. In England the county of Middlesex ranks first with 512,229 depositors (1881) and an aggregate deposit of 7,146,375; in Wales, Glamorganshire with 32,573 depositors and 371,419 ; in Scotland, Lanarkshire with 14,763 depositors and 104,550; in Ireland, Dublin county with 26,480 depositors and 367,672. At the close of 1882 the aggregate sum due to depositors in the last- named county had increased to 398,994. The increase of late years in the Irish deposits is, it may be added, very conspicuous, 1 The figures of 1881 are from a return dated 10th August 1882 (Commons Session Papers, 1882, No. 347). The figures of 1882 are from Twenty -ninth Report of the Postmaster-General, 1883 ; those of 1883 from the Thirtieth Report, 1884.
2 Including fractions of 1, omitted in the particulars above.