130 



BANKS. 



The increasing- popularity of the Post Office Savings Bank is well brought 

 out in the annexed Table (Table I.), which refers only to Ireland : — 



Table I. — Showing the Estimated Balances of Deposits, on 30th of June of the under- 

 mentioned years, in the Post Office and Trustees Savings Banks respectively in 

 Ireland ; and also total deposits for both. 



Table II.— Showing the Number of Accounts remaining open in Post Office and Trustees 

 Savings Banks in Ireland on 31st December in each year of the period, 1884-1900, 

 compiled from the Statistical Abstract for the United Kingdom. 



The Savings Bank Act of 1893 raised the maximum allowed to be de- 

 posited in cash in one year from £^0 to ;^50, doubled the annual maximum 

 amount of stock allowed to be purchased (it had been £100), and increased 

 the stock Hmit from ;£'300 to ^^500. This legislation naturally resulted in a 

 sudden and remarkable rise in the gross amount of deposits. While the 

 deposits in 1893 were i^ 16,000 less than these for 1892, these in 1894 were 

 £616,000 in excess of the 1893 returns. In fact, since 1894, the total 

 deposits in Post Office and Trustees Savings Banks in Ireland have in- 

 creased by ;^3,459,ooo. These figures seem to denote that Savings Bank 

 depositors are no longer exclusively drawn from the poorer classes, to whose 

 interests alone prominence was accorded in the early Savings Bank legisla- 

 tion. 



