§ MR. ARTHUR O'CONNORasked the Postmaster General, Whether it is the intention of the Government to raise the maximum sum which a de- 1021 positor may deposit in one year in the Post Office Savings Bank; and, if so, from what date?
§ MR. FAWCETT, in reply, said, that in 1880 a Bill was introduced by his right hon. Friend the First Lord of the Treasury, which, among other provisions, would have raised the limit of the amount which could be deposited in a savings bank in a single year above the present maximum of £30. The Bill, he regretted to say, had to be withdrawn in consequence of want of time and of the opposition it provoked. If the circumstances became more favourable to the passing of such a measure, the Government would, he thought, be very glad to reintroduce it.
§ MR. COLERIDGE KENNARDsaid, that, in consequence of the answer of the Postmaster General, he would, on going into Committee of Supply, call the attention of the House to the increasing development of centralization in monetary affairs by the development of the Post Office Savings Bank—centralization which tended to contract the facilities hitherto extended to mercantile operations by banking and other institutions, and likewise placed the State, unguarded, at the mercy of a currency panic.