for payment through a bank. He may also, on paying for the extra words, send a short private message to his correspondent in the telegram of advice.
Telegraph money orders may also be sent to Algeria, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Egypt, Faeroe Islands, France, Germany, Holland, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Luxemburg, Monaco Norway, Rumania, Sweden and Switzerland. A fee of 2d. is required in addition to the usual money order commission and the cost of the telegram. The system is being rapidly extended to other countries.
The telegraph inland money orders in 1905-1906 amounted to 503,543. and the sums so remitted to £1,646,882, an average of £3, 1s. The number of telegraph money order transactions between the United Kingdom and foreign countries amounted to 18,787, representing £139,402.
Postal orders were first issued on the first of January 1881. For some years before that date postmasters-general had considered the possibility of issuing orders for fixed amounts at a small commission to replace money orders for sums under 20s., which had failed to be remunerative. When the plan was submitted to a committee appointed by the treasury, it was objected that postal orders as remitting media would be less secure than money orders. This was met in part by giving a discretionary power to fill in the name of the post office and also of the payee. Another objection which was urged, namely, that they would prove to be an issue of government small notes under another name, was quickly disproved. Parliament sanctioned the scheme in 1880. The first series were:—
| 1s., 1s. 6d. | 2s. 6d., 5s., 7s. 6d. | |
| Poundage | 12d. | 1d. |
| 10s., 12s. 6d. 15s. 17s., 6d. 20s. | ||
| Poundage | 2d. | |
In 1884 a new series was issued and a provision made that broken amounts might be made up by affixing postage stamps, to the value of 5d., to the orders. Postal orders have become increasingly popular as a means of remitting small amounts, especially since the introduction in 1903 of new denominations, rendering it possible to obtain a postal order for every complete Sixpence from 6d. to 2IS. From 6d. to 2s. 6d. the poundage is 12d., from 3s. to 15s., 1d., from 15S. 6d. up to 21s., 12d. Postal orders are also furnished with counterfoils, as a means of keeping a record of the number and amount of each order posted. Orders for amounts of 10s. and upwards are printed in red ink. A system of interchange of postal orders between the United Kingdom and India and the British colonies, and also between one colony and another, has been instituted. British postal orders are obtainable also at post offices in Panama, Constantinople, Salonica and Smyrna, and on H.M. ships. The following table shows the number and value of postal orders issued from the beginning to the 31st of March 1907 (000’s omitted):—
| Year. | Number. | Value. |
| £ | ||
| 1881–1882 | 4,462 | 2,006 |
| 1883–1884 | 12,286 | 5,028 |
| 1885–1836 | 25,790 | 10,788 |
| 1890–1891 | 48,841 | 19,178 |
| 1895–1896 | 64,076 | 23,896 |
| 1900–1901 | 85,390 | 29,881 |
| 1906–1907 | 101,658 | 40,484 |
It remains to be added that the various statutes relating to the post office, except those relating to telegraphs and the carriage of mails, were consolidated by the Post Office Act 1908. The act repealed and superseded 26 acts wholly and 10 acts in parts. Sections 1–11 deal with the duties of postage; §§ 12-19 with the conditions of transit of postal packets; §§ 20–22 with newspapers; §§ 23–25 with money orders; §§ 26–32 with ship letters; §§ 33–44 with the postmaster-general and officers; §§ 45–47 with the holding, &c., of land; §§ 48-49 with the extension of postal facilities and accommodation; §§ 50-69 with post office offences; §§ 70–78 with legal proceedings, and §§ 79–94 with regulations, definitions, &c.
Savings Banks.[1]
The establishment of post office savings banks was practically suggested in the year 1860 by Charles William Sykes of Huddersfield, whose suggestion was cordially received by W. E. Gladstone, then chancellor of the 3:2255 exchequer, to whose conspicuous exertions in parliament the effectual working-out of the measure and also many and great improvements in its details are due. Half a century earlier (1807) it had been proposed to utilize the then existing and rudimentary money order branch of the post office for the collection and 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 S. Whitbread, but it failed to receive adequate support, and was withdrawn. When 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 counties were without any. In the existing banks the average amount of a deposit was £4, 6s. 5d.
Gladst0ne's Bill, entitled “ An Act to grant additional facilities for depositing small savings at interest, with the security of Government for the due repayment thereof, ” became law on the 17th of May 1861, and was brought into operation on the 16th of September following. The banks first opened were in places theretofore unprovided. In February 1862 the act was brought into operation in Scotland and in Ireland. Within two years nearly all the money order offices of the United Kingdom became savings banks, and the expansion of the business was continual. The growth of business is shown in the following table:—
| Year ending 31st December. | Average Number of Accounts. | Average Amount of Deposits. | Average Balance in each Account. | Average Number of Offices. |
| £ s d | ||||
| 1863–1868 | 663,000 | 7,000,000 | 11 3 5 | 3,390 |
| 1869–1874 | 1,373,000 | 18,00,000 | 13 5 3 | 4,498 |
| 1875–1880 | 1,889,000 | 29,000,000 | 15 12 5 | 5,742 |
| 1881–1885 | 3,088,000 | 42,000,000 | 13 11 3 | 7,348 |
| 1886–1890 | 4,248,000 | 59,000,000 | 13 16 10 | 9,025 |
| 1891–1895 | 5,776,000 | 83,000,000 | 14 7 0 | 10,888 |
The code of the 1st of November 1888 did not enlarge the limits of deposits or make any great and conspicuous change in the general system, but the postmaster-general obtained power to offer certain facilities for the transfer of money from one account to another, for the easier disposal of the funds of deceased depositors by means of nominations, and in various ways for the convenience of the customers of the bank. Arrangements were made for reducing to rs. the cost of certificates of births, deaths and marriages required for savings bank purposes. In July 1889 Local Loans 3 % Stock was made available for purchase through the postofiice savings bank. " In July 1891, ” says the report of the postmaster-general in 1897, “another Act of Parliament was passed by which the maximum amount which might be deposited was raised from £150 to £200, inclusive of interest. The annual limit remained at £30, but it was provided that, irrespective of that limit, depositors might replace in the bank the amount of any one withdrawal made in the same year. The object of this provision was to avoid curtailing the saving power of a person who might be driven by emergency to make an inroad upon his store, but who might nevertheless, when the emergency had passed, find himself none the poorer and able to replace the money withdrawn. “ The act provided also that where on any account the principal and interest together exceeded £200, interest should cease only on the amount in excess of £200, whereas previously interest ceased Zltogether when it had brought the balance of an account up to 200.
“The next striking development of the Savings Bank arose out of the Free Education* Act, passed in September, 1891. The
- ↑ For a succinct account of the history of the post office savings bank, “so far as depositors and the general public are concerned,” see Forty-third Report of Postmaster-General (1897), pp. 32 seq.
