§ MR. C. ROUNDELL (York, W.R., Skipton)I beg to ask the Vice President of the Committee of Council on Education whether, with respect to public elementary schools in England and Wales, he can state the number of school savings banks and the number of schools in which scholars had accounts in Post Office or other savings banks in the year 1893, as compared with the year preceding the Assisted Education Act; and whether the totals of amounts deposited indicate a progress of habits of thrift among the children?
§ MR. ACLANDThe number of school savings banks, or schools in which scholars had accounts in Post Office or other savings banks, for the year ending 31st August, 1893, was 8,518. The corresponding number for 1891 was 2,629, so that in two years since the Act of 1891 came into operation the number has been more than trebled. The Returns for 1893 show that in 6,715 school savings banks £304,090 had been deposited during the year by 746,551 children, and that the total amount standing to the credit of the depositors at the end of the year was £199,489. In addition to this, sums estimated at about £86,000 were standing to the credit of scholars in accounts at Post Office or other savings banks.