834 report — 1884. 



, 2. The Post Office Savings Batik System of Canada. 

 By J. Cunningham Stewart. 



The history of Pest Office Savings Bants in a new country being wanting in 

 what — as applied to the Post Office Savings Bank system of Great Britain — may 

 he termed the ' pre-historic element,' the records of the Post Office Savings Bank 

 in Canada are without those earlier annals which are so attractive in the study 

 of the parent system. They become a somewhat bald statement of figures, and of 

 results achieved since the year 18G8 when, public attention having been directed to 

 the success of the Post Office Savings Banks in England, a scheme, in its main 

 features a reflection of the British system, received legislative sanction in Canada. 



From 1868 to 1878 the progress of the Post Office Savings Banks in Canada was 

 slow. Since 1878, and up to the present time (July 1884), the increase has been 

 rapid. There are now 343 Post Offices authorised to receive deposits, with 66,682 

 depositors' accounts in the ledgers of the Bank, and the balance standing to their 

 credit is #13,245,552, an average of #198.63 (say 40/. sterling) in the name of each 

 depositor. There have been in all 852,143 deposits and 410,259 withdrawals ; 

 223,834 persons have opened accounts, of which 157,152 were subsequently closed. 



The deposits were held among the following classes, arranged in the order of 

 the most numerous and wealthy ; viz., Farmers, Married icomen, Single women, 

 Mechanics, Trustees and minors, Labourers, Widows, fieri;.*, Tradesmen, Mis- 

 cellaneous. Farmers are one-fifth of the whole numerically, and own one-third 

 of the entire deposits. 



The proportion of depositors to population is : — 



In Ontario 1 to 34 ; in Quebec 1 to 156. 



In measuring the success of the Post Office Savings Bank by that of its proto- 

 type, the different conditions of the two peoples — the old nation and the young — 

 must be borne in mind. In the older country social and class lines are strongly 

 marked, and trades and callings are pursued in such fixed grooves as to narrow the 

 outlet for individual energy. In the new dominion, on the other hand, there are a 

 restlessness and a movement which are destructive of artificial barriers. There are 

 openings which attract the energetic and ambitious, and to every man are there 

 possibilities in the acquisition of real property, sufficient to absorb all surplus 

 wao-es. The wonder, on examination, is that, the Canadian Postal Savings Banks 

 have attained measurable success at all. 



In addition to the #13,000,000 accumulated in the Post Office Savings Bank, 

 the Chartered Banks and their 222 agencies have deposits amounting to #87,000,000, 

 although what proportion of this is in the Savings Bank departments of the Banks, 

 does not appear. Then there are ninety-three Building and Loan Societies re- 

 ceiving deposits at interest, whose liabilities to upwards of 30,000 depositors,, 

 according to latest returns, were #15,000,000. The old-established Savings Banks 

 in- the cities of Montreal and Quebec have, in round figures, #9,250,000 in the 

 names of 42,297 depositors. 



The plan of collecting the minimum deposits (one dollar) by means of postage 

 stamps affixed to a form provided for the purpose, has not commended itself to the 

 Canadian authorities. Neither in this way, nor in the issue of pamphlets on thrift, 

 has the department attempted a paternal treatment of the people, which would 

 hardly be understood in Canada. 



The Post Office Savings Banks in Canada are maintained at a cost to the 

 country of 4^ per cent, on the balance due to depositors. Of this charge the 

 interest allowed to depositors represents about 3 - 85 per cent., and the expenses of 

 management - 25 per cent. The declared rate of interest is 4 per cent., no interest 

 being allowed for any period less than one calendar month. 



The absence of loss is noticeable. Fourteen out of the sixteen years of the 

 Savings Bank's history have been absolutely free from casualty. 



The mode of computing interest, also the form of Depositor's Ledger Account, 

 are noticeable features in the Canadian system. Interest is computed prospectively, 

 a decimal system and a 4 per cent, rate rendering the computation of interest by 

 this method remarkably simple. The plan of computing interest prospectively. 



