[BILL 185] SECOND READING. (Hansard, 30 June 1875)

§ SIR EDWARD WATKIN
, in moving that the Bill be now read the second time, said, its object was to enable companies to establish savings banks for their servants, the matter being purely voluntary as between master and man. The hon. Member concluded by moving the second reading of the Bill.

§ MR. SALT
, in moving that the Bill be read a second time that day three months, said, he held that savings banks ought to be under regulation by law. These would not be, and he should therefore move the rejection of the Bill. He did not question the good intentions of the hon. Member who had charge of the Bill; but he contended that the Bill, as drawn, if he rightly understood it, might lead to undesirable, if not to disastrous results. The Bill practically proposed to embody in a public and general Act certain provisions contained in two private Acts relating to important railway companies. The clauses to which he referred enabled a company to collect money on deposit as in a savings bank from its servants, and to employ this money in the business of the company. No sufficient regulations were to be found in the Bill for publicity, and no efficient scheme for Government control. He repeated that, especially in the case of weak companies, this system might lead to disaster.

§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER
said, he was not disposed to throw any impediments in the way of the extension of savings banks; but the House was not in a position to deal this Session with the question raised by that measure. The whole subject of the reform of savings banks was one which demanded the attention of Parliament and of the Government, and he hoped to be able at the proper time to take it up. There was no use in carrying the measure further then.