Manawatu Evening Standard. SATURDAY, SEPT. 21, 1929. THE SMALL CAPITALIST.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIX, Issue 251, 21 September 1929, Page 8

Manawatu Evening Standard. SATURDAY, SEPT. 21, 1929. THE SMALL CAPITALIST.

However uneven the distribution of wealth may appear to be distributed in countries like the United States of America, it is satisfactory to find that there are, both in Britain and the Dominions, an increasingly large number of small capitalists whose interests are such thac they are not likely to be led away easily by the sophistries of the average Socialist. In a recent issue of the London Times, Mr W. Runciman, M.P., a leading member of the Liberal Party, wrote: —“In 1926-27 I was able to demonstrate that there are in this country 15,000,000 individuals who have some small investment in savings banks, societies and other institutions. These 15,000,000 small investors are capitalists, although their separate holdings are not large. This estimate has never been upset. In March of 1927 I was able to show that the grand total of the savings of these small investors came to at least £1,776,247,000.” Between 1927 and 1929, Mr Runciman further pointed out that the grand total Jiad risen to £2,158,900,000, and this leaves out of account small investments in bank shares, railway stocks, unencumbered house property and other securities, which would themselves provide a considerable addition to the total. The figures are based on official returns with the sole exception of share and life assurance funds, stated at some £400,000,000. The list comprised in the £2,158,900,000 is made up of savings in the Post Office Bank, the Trustee Savings Banks, the Railway Savings Banks, National Savings Certificates (small investors), small Government holdings, industrial life assurance funds, building societies’ share capital, borrowers’ inlerests in houses mortgaged to building societies, industrial and provident societies, friendly societies and co-operative societies, the latter amounting to £116,100,000 only. Writing to the Times a couple of days later, Mr Runciman stated, on the authority of Sir Spencer Portal, the chairman of the Trustee Savings Banks’ Association, that two items could be added to the total, of £2,158,900,000 of small savings set out in his previous letter, namely, the deposits in the special investment department of the Trustee Savings Banks which, on 20th November, 1928, were £38,800,000, this being over and above the ordinary deposits and small Government holdings held for depositors through the Trustee Savings

Banks on the same date amounting to £34,700,000, and this in addition to similar investments made through the Post Office, so that the grand total accordingly comes to over £2,232,400,000. As a further proof of the increasing amount of capital invested by small holders, Major-General J. E. B. Seely, reporting at a national savings meeting at the Mansion House, London, on Bth May, said that after a year of continued unemployment and depression, certificates to the value of £53,000,000 were sold for the year ended March, 1929, being an increase of over £5,000,000 on the previous year. So much for the position of probably the most depressed country in the British Commonwealth of Nations.