18S RiiPORT — 1873. 



permanent prosperity of the working class if it merely gave to them more leisure 

 and a gi'eater number of immediate gratifications, nor unless it were realized in the 

 form of better furniture, more books, a share in a building or cooperative store, or 

 some form of provision for the future, which would increase the self-respect and 

 dignity of the workman. Yet saving was a habit very difficult to acquire, especially 

 by the recipient of weekly wiiges accustomed to live from hand to mouth. It could 

 not be urged on the attention of workmen by employers without some suspicion of 

 interested motives ; it had never been stronglv encouraged by the ministers of re- 

 ligion; it could not well be enforced by any (jtovernment authority; it might even 

 be doubted whether any system of lecturing or theoretic .instruction on economics, 

 either in the school or in the workmen's institute, would ever be very efficacious. 

 Economy was an act, a habit, to be learned mainly by practising it ; and if learned 

 at all, it should be learned early. The school was the right place in which to 

 acquire this habit. Teachers and school managers were in an unusually favourable 

 position for helping the poor in this way. They could without difficulty open the 

 needful accounts with the Post-Office Savings Bank, and their motives were in no 

 danger of being misunderstood by the parents. The child who foregoes an imme- 

 diate indulgence, who saves his halfpence in order to procure a better equipment of 

 books, clothes, or tools on leaving school, and who experiences the delight of finding 

 interest begin to accrue when his saving amounts to a shilling, has learned a lesson 

 in self-restraint and forethought which will abide with him for life. The paper 

 concluded with the description of some of the details by which the introduction of 

 the plan might be facilitated with the help of teachers, members of school boards, 

 and others, and by the expression of a strong wish that the experiment so success- 

 fully made in Ghent might be studied and imitated in England. 



On the East Morley and Bradford Savings-Bank. By Thomas Haig. 



This savings-bank was opened in the year 1818. The town being then very 

 small, its early progress was slow. It had reached its climax in May 18G4, when 

 32,500 persons had deposited £1,273,363, including interest, and there remained in 

 the bank £248,396 due to about 10,000 depositors. From that time to November 

 1869 the bank declined at the average rate of five to six thousand pounds a year, 

 owing to the reduced rate of interest and the narrowed limits as to the amount of 

 deposits; while depositors would readily avail themselves to any extent of other 

 modes of investment at a higher rate of interest. 



To stay its further decline and extend its usefulness no course seemed open but 

 to adopt the suggestion of the Savings-Bank Act, and to open a department for the 

 receipt of deposits for investment on other securities upon which a higher rate of 

 interest could be paid. Accordingly, rules having been prepared, adopted, and 

 certified, the new department was opened in April 1870 for the receipt of larger 

 amounts on interest at 4 per cent, per annum, with power to withdraw twenty 

 pounds without notice once in three months, and larger sums after notice propor- 

 tioned to their amounts. 



Up to the 13th September, 1873, 3257 accounts had been opened in this depart- 

 ment, on which 10,736 deposits had been made, and 4001 withdrawals. Tlio 

 amount of deposits (with interest to April last) was £274,245 13s. 10(/., and the 

 withdrawals £65,559 7s., leaving £208,686 Qs. lOd. due to 2763 depositors. 



Of this sum £160,000 in various amounts had been invested with the Bradford 

 Corporation for limited periods at A\ per cent, per annum. Other sums had boon 

 advanced on mortgage of real property, under the direction of a Finance Committee, 

 assisted by an eminent firm of solicitors and an experienced professional valuer. 



The two departments are kept perfectly distinct, and together meet the require- 

 ments of the class of depositors whose benefit was contemplated by the Legislature 

 in the Savings-Bank Acts. 



On the Income-Tax Question. By T. G. P. Hallett. 



