The results of the Post Office Savings Banks Act have proved entirely satisfactory.  The money-order offices have been largely extended.  They are now about four thousand in number; consequently the facilities for saving have been nearly doubled since the banks were established.  The number in the London district is now about four hundred and sixty, so that from any point in the thickly populated parts of the metropolis, a Savings Bank may be found within a distance of a few hundred yards.  The number of the depositors at the end of 1873 amounted to more than a million and a half; while the amount of deposits reached over twenty-one millions sterling.[1] At the same time the amount deposited with the original Savings Banks remained about the same.

[Footnote 1:  The amount reached L23,157,469 at the end of 1874.]

Post Office Savings Banks possess several great advantages which ought to be generally known.  The banks are very widely diffused, and are open from nine in the morning until six in the evening, and on Saturdays until nine at night.  Persons may make a deposit of a shilling, or of any number of shillings, provided more than thirty pounds is not deposited in any one year.  The Post Office officers furnish the book in which the several deposits are entered.  The book also contains the regulations of the Post Office Savings Banks.  Interest is allowed at the rate of two pounds ten shillings per cent, per annum.

Another most important point is, the Security.  Government is responsible for the full amount paid in; so that the money deposited with the Post Office Savings Bank is as safe as if it were in the Bank of England.  The money saved may also be transferred from place to place, without expense, and may be easily paid to the depositor when required, no matter where it was originally deposited.  All that is done, is done in perfect secrecy between the depositor and the postmaster, who is forbidden to disclose the names of the depositors.

We have frequently alluded to Mr. Charles William Sikes in connection with Penny Banks and Post Office Savings Banks.  His name must always hold a distinguished place in connection with those valuable institutions.  He is the son of a private banker in Huddersfield.  When at school he was presented, as a prize, with a copy of Dr. Franklin’s Essays and Letters.  He perused the book with avidity.  It implanted in his mind the germs of many useful thoughts, and exercised a powerful influence in giving a practical character to his life.  Huddersfield is a busy manufacturing town.  Although workmen were well paid for their labour, there were many ups and downs in their business.  When trade became slack, and they had spent all that they had earned, numbers of them were accustomed to apply for charity in the streets or by the wayside.  Young Sikes often wondered whether these people had ever heard of Dr. Franklin, and of his method of avoiding beggary or bad times by saving their money when trade was brisk and they were well off.