§ SIR ANDREW AGNEWsaid, he would 1067 beg to ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer, Whether it is the intention of Her Majesty's Government to extend the accommodation contemplated under the Post Office Savings Banks Act to all parts of the United Kingdom; and whether the Postmaster General is prepared to receive applications from private parties interested in the establishment of Savings Banks in particular localities?
§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUERsaid, if by all parts of the United Kingdom was meant England, Scotland, and Ireland, undoubtedly the operation of the Act would extend to them. With regard to the particular districts, the principal object of the Postmaster General would be to grant Savings Bank accommodation in the first instance, and by. preference, to those districts where it was wanting, where it was desired, and where it did not exist at present in a sufficiently convenient form. The Postmaster General would, first of all, get a sufficient number of districts to make a trial, and he would then be guided by the operation of the experiment in the selected places as to his further movements, but he would look particularly to the agricultural districts, and to the most populous and wealthy of them, as the places to which his attention ought to be directed. As to applications from private parties, it would be very convenient that gentlemen who took an interest in different neighbourhoods in the condition of the labouring class should make known their views and wishes to the Postmaster General, because the general wish entertained in any locality would be a material element with him in coming to a decision as to the particular places, in the first instance, to which he would contemplate extending the Act.