CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



1862, the number of these institutions was 2532. 

 Of this number, 1795 were in England, 129 in 

 Wales, 299 in Scotland, 300 in Ireland, and 9 in 

 the islands. The number of depositors was 91,965, 

 and the total amount of their deposits, .735,253. 



In 1873, the number of Post-office savings-banks 

 was 4800. In the London district alone, there 

 were 560, so that from almost any point in the 

 thickly populated portions of the metropolis, one 

 might be found within a radius of a few hundred 

 yards. The number of depositors on September 

 1 6, 1873, was more than a million and a half, the 

 amount of their deposits exceeding .21,000,000. 

 The cost of each transaction that is, each deposit 

 or withdrawal to the post-office is 6d., as com- 

 pared with is. in the old savings-banks. The 

 proportion of depositors in proportion to popula- 

 tion during 1873 was in England and Wales, 

 I to about 1 6 ; in Scotland, i to about 72 ; but 

 in Ireland it was only i to about 105. Yet, 

 singularly enough, the average amount belong- 

 ing to each depositor is largest in Ireland, 

 being 16, as compared with ^14 in England, 

 and less than 9 in Scotland. The limited 

 number of depositors and value of their deposits, 

 in Scotland, is caused by its being the custom of 

 the Scottish banks to allow interest on small sums 

 of money. The fact that, with upwards of 100,000 

 more depositors, the Post-office savings-banks 

 have much smaller average deposits than the 

 savings-banks, shews that the former are carrying 

 provident habits into a lower stratum of society 

 than was reached by the latter. The chief 

 advantages possessed by the Post-office savings- 

 banks over the old savings-banks, appear to be 

 greater security for the repayment of deposits, 

 and increased facilities for depositing or with- 

 drawing small sums, the Post-office banks being 

 open for at least six hours each week day, and 

 in many places on Friday and Saturday evenings, 

 while most of the old banks were only open for 

 two or three hours in each week. 



PENNY BANKS. 



Although the old savings-banks and those con- 

 nected with the General Post-office have proved 

 of such utility to large numbers of the labouring- 

 classes, it is found that there are many persons in 

 humble circumstances to whom these institutions 

 are practically useless, in consequence of their not 

 taking deposits of smaller amount than one shill- 

 ing. This has led to the establishment of what 

 are termed penny banks, in which sums as low as 

 one penny are accepted. These institutions are 

 generally found existing in connection with re- 

 ligious, temperance, and other organisations, hav- 

 ing for their object the encouragement of provident 

 habits among the masses. In many cases the 

 banks take care of the pence of the depositor until 

 they reach the sum of one shilling, when it is 

 placed in regular savings-banks. The greater 

 number of depositors are children belonging to 

 the poorer classes of the community, who are 

 thus early accustomed to those habits of thrift 

 to which they must principally look, in after-life, 

 for any real mitigation of their social condition. 

 There is no regular system of interest adopted in 

 penny banks, but in several it is the custom to 

 give small bonuses to those who have saved a 

 certain sum in a given time. As a rule, when the 



deposits in a penny bank reach a certain sum, say 

 from five to twenty shillings, the moneys are 

 deposited in a Post-office savings-bank, for which 

 purpose certain facilities have been provided. In 

 1873, more than a hundred accounts were thus 

 opened between the Post-office savings-banks and 

 the penny banks. There exist no reliable statistics 

 respecting the present number of penny banks, 

 but it is believed that there are not less than 2000 

 in England alone, more than half of that number 

 being found in London and other great centres of 

 population. 



FRIENDLY AND BENEFIT SOCIETIES. 



Savings, instead of being stored up in a bank, 

 to be there constantly at command, may be in- 

 vested by a working-man in a well-constituted 

 friendly society, as a means of insuring for him- 

 self certain contingent and fixed benefits. Friendly 

 societies generally embrace several objects, as the 

 securing of a weekly sum during sickness, and a 

 pension after a certain age. They are based on 

 the principle of mutual insurance (see LIFE-AS- 

 SURANCE, No. 87) ; that is to say, members make 

 payments, either at once or in small periodical 

 sums, and thus constitute a fund, out of which 

 such as happen to fall sick or to survive a certain 

 age, are supplied, the uncertainty attached to all 

 individual concerns being lost, in the certainty 

 which attends calculations involving great num- 

 bers. In some respects, and for some cases, join- 

 ing a friendly society may be better than becoming 

 a depositor in a savings-bank. Sickness may 

 come before the savings are considerable ; or, if 

 considerable, they may be melted away by a long- 

 continued sickness j but after the first weekly 

 payment is made to a friendly society, the mem- 

 ber is secure of succour, however long his illness 

 may continue, besides, perhaps, other advantages. 

 It is possible, on the other hand, that a difficulty 

 may be experienced, in certain circumstances, in 

 keeping up the weekly or other payments required 

 to secure the benefits of friendly societies. Here, 

 however, it may be said, there is no more than 

 the usual uncertainty attached to all things. As- 

 suredly, the arrangement of a rightly constituted 

 friendly society furnishes a very considerable 

 degree of security against some of the uncertain- 

 ties of life, 



It is to be regretted that many of these societies 

 are founded upon erroneous principles, or rather 

 upon no principles at all ; and it often happens, 

 therefore, that those who trust to them are dis- 

 appointed, the funds falling short before all claims 

 are satisfied. Large sums are annually misspent 

 by the industrial classes in the support of these 

 societies, a circumstance which has provoked 

 parliamentary inquiry, with the view of bringing 

 these societies under legislative control. One of 

 the primary mistakes in the formation of such 

 associations is the assumption that each member 

 should pay an equal sum, whatever his age 

 may be. This is unjust ; for the younger 

 members have a less chance of becoming bur- 

 densome to the funds than the middle-aged ; and, 

 indeed, there is a rising scale of probability 

 of sickness throughout all the years of a man's 

 life. The Highland Society, taking the experi- 

 ences of 73 benefit societies, found that, between 

 twenty and thirty, men are liable, on an average, 



