TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 



835 



now followed in the Savings Bank departraouts of all C.niaaian T3nnli.*, was first 

 introduced in Canada Ijy the Post Ullice Suvinf^'s Bank. 



The form of Ledi.'er Account is reniarkahle principally from its dispen^iii^' witii 

 the ])rocess of ruling'- oil' and addinij the debtor and creditor sides at the closi- 

 of I'fich year. The saving- cf labour etlected ])ernuts the annual task of addiii'i- the 

 iiitiMvst Jn depositors' accouuts and of ' ljalancin<r ' the ledgers bein;; carried on 

 witli extreme rapidity. The interest was added to the 0f),(J8l{ accounts open on 

 Juno 30, 1S84, and tiie accounts themselves balanced in tliree davs— /,p., cm tiie 

 tii>t tiiree days in July — without interruption to the regular daily' work on those 

 days. 



In the Canadian system such is the daily proof upon tlie accuracy of tht- 

 Icdjrer entries, that no further or periodical check is employed, except that arumai 

 veritication wliich the alistracts from tho ledgers made in July of each -Near alford. 



Tlio relation betwi'en labour and clerical force bears a striking aiiaioiTy lo the 

 conditions in the British Savings Bank department. In (!anada there is one 

 clerk to each ,3,200 depositors' accounts; in England one to e.ich 3,100. In t-anada 

 tliere is one clerk to each 7,900 transactions; in ICngland one to each 8,770 

 transactions. These tignres bear perhaps the best testimony to the good organisa- 

 tion of the Canadian service, the British Post Office Savings Bank being universally 

 looked upon as a model of successful administration. 



3. Bominion Savings Banks. By T. D. Tl.MS. 



t.'V 



4. Loans and Savinr/s Companies. By W. A. Douglas. 



5. Irish Emigraliun. By S. Tuke. 



•'''' 6. The British Empire in North America and in Australasia. 



By W. AVestgartii. 



The author, one of the earlier colonists of the still youthful Victoria, first 

 President of the Melbourne Chamber vi' Commerce, and the senior member for 

 -Melbourne in the first Legislature of the colony, claimed full acquaintance with 

 one principal part of his subject, Australasia, and, with regard to Canada, he had 

 visited it thirty years before, and has now returned to witness with due interest its 

 great progress. He opened his subject by pointing to three principal colonial terri- 

 tories of the lunpire ; namely, British North America, Australasia, and South 

 Africa. He was to deal only witli the two first, which, however, were by far the 

 more important, and gave promise (jf being, in the future, even the greatest of the 

 entire Empire. He had spent seventeen years of his earlier life in Australia, and 

 was now, as he said, revisiting Canada. The Canadian Dominion included, in its 

 recent auspicious federation, all of British America north of the United States, 

 v.'itli the sole exception of the still separate culony of Newfoundland, which, how- 

 ever, it can hardly bo imagined, is to continue permanently thus outside, Austra- 

 lasia embraces, in tlie colonial sense, the Australian main, Tasmania, New Zealand, 

 aud Fiji, lu the geographical .sense it would include also New (,'aledonia, belonging 

 to France, the Loyalties and New Hebrides groups, and, above all, the great terri- 

 tory of New Guinea, with the smaller islands on its eastern flank. South-Eastern 

 New Guinea, unclaimed by the Dutch, is at length to be added to the British Em- 

 pire, after some protracted discussion between the Colonial OJlice and the Austra- 

 lasian colonies. These colonies are not yet federated like the Dominion, but action 

 lias already been taken in that direction.' The author next alluded to the accelera- 

 tive rate of all modern progress, and forecasted the great advance and the vast and 

 prosperous interests which the Dominion and Australasia would present even 

 within fifty or a hundred years hence. He remarked, in favour of the Canadian 

 i'uture, that the cooler and more bracing climates brought eventually the highest 



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