Note 90 — Chapter V

It must not be assumed that there was no difference of opinion on these points, even among Savings Bank managers. The following letter, read by Sir Charles Wood during his speech in 1850, is conclusive to the contrary. The writer, who was manager of a large provincial Savings Bank, wrote: I have had occasion to remark that the chief inducement to deposit money by those for whom Savings Banks are intended, consists in having a safe place for deposit, and that the amount of interest for the most part is but a secondary consideration; whereas those persons whose means are greater, and who do not actually require Savings Banks, use them to suit their convenience when the Funds are high, and take out their money from the Savings Banks to invest in the Funds when low, just at that very time when the withdrawal occasions loss to the country. He then expressed an opinion almost identical with one which Mr. Tidd Pratt has often given, that 20l. would be quite sufficient to allow a person to deposit in one year, and that, when the deposits reach 100l. there is no necessity to allow further deposits to be made. Again, the Rev. W. Rowan, Treasurer of the Tralee Bank, when asked in the Committee of 1849, if he thought changes were necessary in Savings Banks, answered that, The Savings Bank system must either become a general failure, and the funds invested in them withdrawn, or you must place it upon an entirely different footing with respect to inspection and working.