§ MR. O'KELLYasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether the Boyle Savings Bank is identical with the Bank conducted in Colonel King-Harman's rent office, and by his sub-agent; whether the following rule or bye law of said Bank has been brought to the notice of the Government:—
That any trustee or manager of this Savings Bank who has declared or shall declare in writing under his hand, deposited with the Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt, that he is willing to be answerable for a specific sum only, such amount being in no case less than £100, shall not be liable to make good any deficiency which may hereafter arise in the funds of this Savings Bank beyond the amount specified in such writing, &c.;whether he is aware that according to 1647 Parliamentary Return, No. 157, issued in 1880, sums amounting to £30,073 16s. 5d. have been placed on deposit in the Boyle Savings Bank, on the faith of the supposed responsibility of the Government for the repayment of the sums deposited; whether in case of any deficiency arising in the funds of the Boyle Savings Bank, owing to fraud or losses from whatever cause, and the non-liability of the trustees as contemplated under approved Rule No. 33 of the same Bank, it would be the duty of the Government or of the Commissioners of the National Debt to indemnify the depositors from any loss they may sustain; and, whether in view of the existence of a Post Office Savings Bank, which affords absolute security to small depositors, within a few hundred yards of the Boyle Savings Bank, there is any public advantage in maintaining the latter institution at an annual cost to the public exchequer of £17813s. 4d.; and, if no such public advantage exists, whether Her Majesty's Government will take steps to close the Boyle Savings Bank, and, under Act 26 Vic. c. 14, have its funds transferred to the Post Office Savings Bank, and thereby effect an annual saving of £178 13s. 4d. of the public money?
§ MR. W. E. FORSTER, in reply, said, that the manager of the Bank was the same person as Colonel King-Harman's sub-agent. Under the provisions of the Savings Bank Act, any trustee or manager might limit his responsibility to an amount not less than £100 by a writing under his hand to the Commissioners for the National Debt. The name of every trustee, and the amount of their collective or individual responsibility, must be printed and posted in every place where deposits were received. It was not the duty of the Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt, or the Government, to indemnify depositors for loss in the case of a deficiency in the funds of the Savings Bank, except in so far as these funds had been lodged with the Commissioners. With regard to the condition of this particular bank, Parliamentary Returns showed that £30,073 had been deposited in the Boyle Savings Bank up to date; and, at the same time, the Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt held to the credit of the Bank £3,263. This Savings Bank had been 58 years in existence. The last audit showed a 1648 satisfactory state of its finances. This bank appeared to be in a perfectly sound and healthy condition; but he would take this opportunity of stating—what was true in Ireland as well as in England—that as regarded Savings Banks other than Post Office Banks the Government was not responsible for any sum except to the amount of that which had been deposited with the Commissioners. They had no power to close the bank.