§ Returns ordered, "(1) from each savings bank in England and Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and the Channel Islands, containing, in columns, the names of the officers, their respective salaries, and other allowances, if any; the amount of security each gives; the annual expenses of management, inclusive of all payments and salaries, for the year ended the 20th day of November, 1898; the rate per centum per annum on the capital of the bank for the expenses of management; the rate of interest paid to depositors on the various amounts of deposit, and the average rate of interest on all accounts; the number of accounts remaining open; the total amount owing, to depositors; the total amount invested with the Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt; the balance in the hands of the Treasurer at the 20th day of November, 1898; the total amount of the separate Surplus Fund on the 20th day of November, 1898; other assets, including estimated value of bank premises, furniture, etc.; the total assets; the total amount of Government Stock standing to the credit of depositors; the number and amount of annuities granted; and the average cost of each transaction; also the year in which business commenced in each bank, and the name of the day or days, 1361 and the number of hours in the week, on winch the banks are open for the deposit and withdrawal of moneys; including in such Return a list of all such savings banks as, under the provisions of the Act 26 Vic., c. 14, or otherwise, have been closed and have transferred their funds, or any part thereof, to the Post Office Savings Banks; showing, in each case, the number of such banks, as well as the number and amount of depositors' accounts so transferred, and the amount of compensation, if any, made to all or any of the officers of such banks respectively; and showing also the years in which such banks were respectively opened and closed, and the number and amount of their depositors' balances, and the number of days and hours in each week on which the same banks were open for public business at the close of the year next preceding the date of such closing; distinguishing the same, as in the form of the return, for each separate county, as well as collectively, for England and Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and the Channel islands, and for the United Kingdom; and (2) for the year ending the 20th day of November, 1898, showing the total number of depositors in trustee savings banks; the total number of deposits; the average sums paid in and drawn out; the total number of persons who have deposited in single sums the entire amount allowed to be deposited during the year (in continuation of Parliamentary Paper, No. 254, of Session 1898)."—(Sir John William Maclure.)