Table showing the Amount and Nature of the Business done in the Post Office Savings Banks
from their opening in September, 1861, to December, 1865.

Date.Number
of
Deposits.		Amount
of
Deposits.		Average amount
of each Deposit
during the period. 		Number
of With-
drawals.		Amount
of With-
drawal.		Average amount
standing to
the credit of
each Account.
£££ s. d.£ £ s. d.
From 16 Sept. to
31 Dec. 1861.		46,643167,5303 11 101,7026,759 6 9 9
Year 1862592,5731,947,1393 5 995,592431,878 9 10 3
Year 1863842,8482,651,2093 2 11197,4311,027,15410 11 4
Year 18641,110,7623,350,0003 0 3309,2421,834,84910 12 1
Year 18651,302,3093,719,0182 17 1407,4122,318,61110 13 4
Total3,895,13511,834,8963 0 91,011,3795,619,251 9 11 4

In the ten years ending November, 1861, the annual average increase in the total number of Savings Bank depositors was at the rate of 3⅘ per cent. In one year from this date the increase in the number of depositors—taking the depositors of the old banks and the Post Office Banks together—was at the rate of 6¾ per cent. That this increase was altogether owing to the introduction of the new system, scarcely requires proof: a few of the old Savings Banks, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool, and Birmingham for example, increased their business during 1862; but the aggregate of the old Savings Banks lost more business than the few gained. Again, in all cases, the gain of the Post Office Banks was far greater than the loss of the old banks.[179] Throughout the entire kingdom the old banks lost 55,000, and the Post Office Banks gained 160,000 depositors.

The rate of increase shown in the first year has been continued with inconsiderable variations up to the present time, and, in his last Report, the Postmaster-General, in view of all the facts of the case, states: “On the whole, it seems reasonable to expect that the annual increase in the business of the Post Office Banks will for some time be from 130,000 to 140,000 in the number of depositors, and from 1,400,000l. to 1,500,000l. in the capital of depositors.”[180] The correctness of these calculations will not depend to any appreciable extent on the increase of facilities, such as the opening of new banks: the Post Office Banks have already been so widely established that little additional accommodation will be required for some time to come. It is made to depend, we should imagine, on the principles of Post Office Banks becoming more and more widely known, and their facilities more and more appreciated. This has clearly been the experience of the last two years. In 1864, 161 new banks were opened, and the increase of depositors was at the rate of 42 per cent.; in 1865, only 73 new banks were opened, and yet the increase in the number of depositors was at the rate of 40 per cent.

As to the Nature of the business done. Some idea of the nature of the increased business done may be gathered in several ways. First and foremost the number of Post Office Savings Bank depositors represents an enormous number of accessions to the list of frugal people who have perhaps for the first time begun to save, and of those who, more prudent and less confiding in their fellows, seek the security of the State for the safe custody and prompt repayment of their savings. It is a somewhat remarkable fact, that of the total amount which had up to the end of last year been deposited in Post Office Banks, not much more than a million and a half (allowing for money transferred otherwise than by means of the regular transfer certificate) had been withdrawn from the old Savings Banks. Moreover, out of this large sum more than half seems to have come to the Post Office Banks through the voluntary closing of Savings Banks on the old principle,—the Birmingham Savings Bank contributing a third of the whole amount.

From these facts, it seems quite clear that the business acquired by the Post Office Banks, at any rate up to this time, is almost entirely newly-created business, and that the older Savings Banks have only been interfered with to a trifling extent. Besides the amount already referred to, other sums might undoubtedly have been placed with the older institutions, had there been no competition; but by far the greatest proportion is plainly derived from sources hitherto unreached, and consists of money which no amount of persuasion could divert from the hundred forms of indulgence to the older channels of economic hoarding.

The Post Office Banks, further, seem not only to have attracted a public of their own, but to have created, as it were, a fresh race of provident people. All kinds of Savings Banks have been established to give, in some form or other, facilities for the deposit of small savings. When the new banks commenced, the average amount of a single deposit in the existing banks was, and had been for some time, 4l. 6s. 5d.; during the first year of the existence of the Post Office Banks, the average amount was only 3l. 1s. 9d. But this average has been still further reduced. The Post Office authorities, describing more recent operations,[181] state, that as the nature and advantages of these banks became known to the poorer classes, and as new banks were opened from time to time in rural districts, and densely populated portions of our large towns inhabited by those classes, a gradual reduction in the average amount of each deposit has taken place, and that that amount has for some time ranged between 2l. and 3l., whilst the average amount of each sum deposited in the old Savings Banks has not undergone any marked alteration. The conclusion which has been arrived at is the only one possible, viz., either that the Post Office Banks have reached a poorer class of depositors than the old banks have been able to attract, or that in increasing so many fold, as we shall have to describe, the facilities for the more frequent deposit of small sums, they have at the same time, and proportionately, increased the inducements to frugality, and removed the temptations to wastefulness.

Still dealing with the peculiar nature of the new business, it is very important that one fact should not be lost sight of. In our opinion, it completes the evidence as to further accommodation being urgently required by the poorer classes. In those towns and districts which before 1861 were considered to be well supplied with sufficient and well-managed institutions, the success of the Post Office Banks has been most marked. Thus in Edinburgh, the rate of increase in the number of depositors rose in one year from 3½ to 5¾ per cent.; in Dublin, from 4½ to 7 per cent.; whilst in the county of Middlesex, where, before the Post Office Banks were established, there were “forty-one prosperous and excellently managed banks, which seemed to hold out all needful inducements to prudence and frugality,” no less than 30,000 persons were added to the roll of Savings Bank depositors in the year following the introduction of the new banks into that county. The rate of increase before 1861 was 2½ per cent.; in 1861 and 1862, it was at the rate of 10 per cent.

The average amount standing to the credit of each depositor in the Post Office Banks has for some time ranged between 10l. and 11l., and is not expected to exceed that sum for some time to come. Of the whole number of depositors, about four per cent. have balances due to them of 50l. and upwards. A general idea of the mass of depositors may be gathered from the above facts, and they may be supplemented by the following table, which, though only the result of an estimate, is near enough for our purpose. In March, 1865, a certain proportion of the open accounts in the Post Office Banks was examined, in order that some idea might be obtained of the occupation of the entire number,—from which it seemed probable that the 524,340 depositors were made up pretty much as follows:—

Females, Male Minors, and Trustees285,769
Mechanics and Artisans, Domestic and Farm
Servants, Porters, Policemen, Labourers,
Boatmen, Fishermen and Seamen		140,518
Tradesmen and their Male Assistants, Farmers
and Clerks of all kinds except those
mentioned below		53,756
Males of no stated occupation, Professional Men
and their Clerks or Assistants		31,353
Males engaged in education5,692
Persons in the Army and Navy4,682
Persons employed in the Revenue Departments2,570
Total  524,340