On Post Office Savings' Banhs, Sfc. 49 



Aet. I. — On Post Office Savings' BanJcs, Friendly Societies, and 

 Government Life Assurance, hy Christoplier Rolleston, Bisq., 

 Auditor- General. 



[Eead before the Society, June 15th, 1870.] 



Amidst the wonderful progress which characterises the age in 

 which we live there is none more beneficial to society than that 

 which has been directed to the amelioration of the condition of 

 the working classes ; and, of the efforts made for their benefib, 

 perhaps, there are none more successful than those which have 

 been directed to the promotion of institutions for securing the 

 savings, and assuring the lives of the people. And surely no 

 higher aim can be placed before any man who is in a position of 

 power and influence than that which is promotive of the happiness 

 and well-being of his less fortunate fellow countrymen. 



I am not sure that, in so far as regards the important interests 

 involved in the questions proposed for our consideration this 

 evening, we may not take some shame to ourselves, as the 

 inhabitants of the oldest colony of the Australian group, that we 

 have allowed ourselves to be outstript in the race of improvement 

 by our neighbours north and south of us — in Victoria and 

 Queensland. 



Savings' Banks are universally admitted to be amongst the 

 most valuable of social institutions, in fostering a spirit of 

 independence, and encouraging a system of provident forethought 

 amongst the industrious classes ; but we have not enough of 

 them, and it is with the view of promoting this great social 

 movement that I have selected this subject for discussion in the 

 hope of directing public attention to it. 



The Savings' Bank of New South "Wales has undoubtedly 

 achieved a high position amongst kindred institutions. Its 

 administration has commanded public confidence in the highest 

 degree, and the institution has been the instrument of inestimable 

 good wherever it has reached. Its funds at the present time 

 exceed a million sterling, and it has accounts open with some 

 23,000 depositors or thereabouts. We cannot tell the extent of 

 the individual and family happiness involved in these figures, but 

 whatever the extent may be, it comes far short of the requirements 

 of the colony at the present time — nor is it; possible for the 

 Savings' Bank, as at present constituted, to supply the want. It 

 is admirable as far as it goes, that is for the metropolis and the 

 large centres of population in which it has branches. 



