The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 66
Savings-Banks
Savings-Banks.
The figures given below show the operations of the Post-Office Savings-Banks for the last six calendar years. The severe depression which existed throughout the colony during 1879 appears to have had comparatively little effect upon this business. A greater amount of money was withdrawn during the year, but the total amount left standing at the credit of depositors on the 31st December, 1879, was very little less than in 1878, and greater than in 1877; and since that time there has been a steady increase, as the following table shows:—
1879. | 1880. | 1881. | 1882. | 1883. | 1884. | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
£ | £ | £ | £ | £ | £ | |
Amount of deposits | 812,399 | 864,441 | 1,189,012 | 1,325,852 | 1,178,474 | 1,227,909 |
Amount of withdrawals | 876,180 | 780,504 | 902,195 | 1,142,599 | 1,295,719 | 1,195,921 |
Amount of at credit of depositors | 787,006 | 903,765 | 1,232,787 | 1,470,950 | 1,409,751 | 1,499,112 |
Average amount at credit of each depositor | 22 12s. 11d. | 23 7s. 6d. | 24 3s. 4d. | 25 11s. 5d. | 22 15s. 2d. | 22 16s. 3d. |
Number of Post-Office Savings-Banks | 165 | 178 | 190 | 207 | 222 | 243 |
The average cost of each Post-Office Savings-Bank transaction, deposit or withdrawal, in the year 1884 was 47/13d.; the average for the whole period of the existence of the Post-Office Savings-Banks in the colony being 6d. The proportion of depositors to the population was 1 to 13 for 1878, while in 1881 it had risen to 1 in 10 and in 1884 to 1 in 8. The proportion in the United Kingdom, in 1877, was 1 in 19.
On the 31st December, 1884, the total sum standing at credit of depositors in the Post-Office Savings-Banks amounted to | £1,499,112 |
At the credit of depositors of other savings-banks | £427,646 |
£1,926,758 |
This amount is equal to £3 6s. 0d. per head of the European population at the same date, as against £2 11s. 7d. for 1878 and £3 1s. 10d. for 1881.
These figures are valuable, as giving an indication of the prosperity of the working classes; but there is a very large amount of savings constantly being invested in building societies, and as constantly being withdrawn for the purchase or erection of dwellings, of which no official record exists.
In No. IV. of the statistical diagrams at the end of this book will be found an interesting representation of the fluctuations in the rate of savings in New Zealand.