50 On Post Office Savings' BanJcs, <Sfc. 



But when we consider that out of the 113 towns and villages 

 enumerated in the Census of 1861, the advantages of the Savings' 

 Bank have only been extended to sixteen, we see at once how 

 inadequate is its organization to meet the wants of the inhabitants 

 in the remote and sparsely populated districts, and we are led to 

 the enquiry how are we to reach these people ? And how are we 

 to hold out to them inducements to a prudent forethought in 

 providing for the wants of old age, or the claims of widows and 

 cliildren ? There are plenty of bush public-houses with their 

 demoralising allurements to swallow up the yearly savings of a 

 poor shepherd, bullock-driver, or bushman. He is often relieved 

 in a night of the earnings of a year ; and, poor man, he can 

 hardly help himself, for he does not know where to place his 

 money, or how to invest it ; so he drinks and squanders it, and 

 returns to his labour a poorer but not a wiser man— in nine cases 

 out of ten probably to repeat the same folly again. I say, then, 

 we are bound as a Christian community — seeing that we 

 encourage, by our legislation, the temptation under which so 

 many are led to ruin — to do what we can to provide an antidote. 

 Much has been done to extend the blessings of education to the 

 young throughout the length and breadth of the land, and as an 

 adjunct to this we want to provide for the education of the adult 

 — the father that is, or is to be, of the future generation. We 

 want to train him in the ways of industry, temperance, and 

 prudence ; and to make of him a better husband, a better father, 

 and a better citizen. And of the means to be taken to bring 

 about this desirable result, perhaps the encouragement of 

 institutions of the kind I have alluded to are the most effective, 

 but we must look for an organization better adapted for our 

 purpose than that of the present Savings' Bank, and where else 

 can we find an organization adequate to the accomplishment of 

 the ends in view but in the Post Office with its iive hundred 

 branch offices scattered all over the country. In connection 

 with the Post Office we have a hundred and sixty " Money Order" 

 offices, and wherever there is a " Money Order" office why should 

 we not have a Sa%dngs' Bank ? We know that in the mother 

 country the Post Office has organised a most successful system 

 of Savings' Banks, and that in the adjoining colonies her 

 beneficent exr.mple has been imitated : and why not in New 

 South Wales ? Why should we be behind in the race of 

 improvement ? 



The Imperial system legalises the opening of Savings' Banks 

 at every " Money Order" office in England, Scotland, Wales, and 

 Ireland. It authorises Postmasters to receive any sums of money 

 not less than a shilling, and not more than £30 in one year, or 

 more than £150 in the whole. Interest is paid to the depositor 

 at the rate of £2 10s. per cent., or 6d. in the pound. The 



