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Increase in resources during Net increase since Jan. 1. 1880. $307,162.669 64 No savings bank has been organized nor application to organize made during Mr. Paine's administration. The American Savings Bank of the City of New-York, authorized January 31, 1882, was opened last December. The Morrisania Savings Bank, having paid depositors in full, was closed last year. The whole number of savings banks reporting to the Department is 127. At no time, says the superintendent, has the condition of the savings in-stitutions been so satisfactory as at the present. The proportion of surplus to liabilities is large, investments as a whole have never been of such unexceptionable character, and the management of the banks so justly exempt from criticism. I have yet to learn of any case where attention has been called to a violation of the present strict law that a most cheerful compliance has not been manifested to correct the error. The amount due to depositors January 1, 1884, was $431,080,010, an increase of $18,932,797 during the year. $12,255,441 of which was in the New-York City banks, and $3.700,350 in those of Kings County. The increase from January to July was $8,683,794 38, and from July to January $10,249,002 62. The aggregate of deposits received (exclusive of interest credited) and deposits withdrawn during the year 1883 was $304,624,205. The total number of depositors or open accounts January 1, 1984, was 1.147,588, a gain during the year of 51,617. The average of each account at the same period was $375 64, a reduction of 41 cents since January 1, 1883. ### INVESTMENTS, SURPLUS AND INTEREST. The amount loaned on bond and mortgage January 1, 1884, was $125,630,174, an increase within the year of $17,817,960. Of the total amount, the banks of New-York City hold $75,991,154, and those of Kings County $13,621,618. The amount invested in real estate, January 1, was, at estimated market value, $8,428,757, being a decrease during the year of $201,562. The total decrease since January 1, 1880, is $2,001,822. The cash on hand and deposited, January 1, 1884, was $40,106,755, an increase during the year of $10,288,399. The total surplus based on market values January 1, 1884, was $68,009,559. On the par value of stock investments and estimated market value of real estate, it was at the same date $19,843,144. The increase during the year on market value basis was $7,378,732, and on par value basis $621,885. For the year 1883 the sum of $14,724,663 in interest was credited and paid to depositors. The average rate paid for the past year was .0354. For the preceding year .0355. The aggregate expenses for the year 1883 were $1,444,809; for the year 1882 they were $1,377,806; and while an increase of $67.003 in amount is shown, the cost of the care of each account remained exactly the same during the two years, viz.: One dollar and twenty-six cents. In 1880 it was $1 31. The superintendent devotes some space to showing that the savings banks are benevolent, not charitable, institutions, and to an exhibit of their great importance, showing that their deposits to-day exceed forty-seven per cent of the entire actively employed circulation of the country, and are more than double as much in amount as the entire capital employed in the State by all of the financial corporations alluded to. A large part of the report is devoted to a history of savings bank investments, legalized at different times since the first one was established, and to a consideration of arguments used and steps taken to broaden their scope of late; especially to the Page bill which the Governor vetoed last year. The superintendent urgently recommends that the present bill be left unchanged. Considering the labor, responsibility and liability of savings banks trustees, Superintendent Paine suggests the possible desirability of allowing them, under certain conditions, small fixed pay. ### TRUST COMPANIES. The reports of twelve trust companies on file with the Department July 1, 1874, show an aggregate capital paid in of $11,752,040. At present there are seventeen companies reporting to the Department, the capital of which is $13,637,000. In 1874 the total resources were $57,716,109, now they are $164,314,887; the deposits then were $38,479,791, now they are $127,781,467. The total surplus and other profits during the period have increased from $4,797,196 to $13,409,997, a gain of $8,612,801. During the year 1883 their assets increased $20,425,539 17, and surplus and undivided profits $2,689,563 81. Apropos of the carelessness which has been shown occasionally in granting charters to trust companies, and the abuses which have arisen and may arise in that manner, the superintendent says: "Article 8 of the Constitution of 1846 prohibited the Legislature from granting special charters for banking purposes; this article, amended November 3, 1874, prohibits the granting of any charter to an institution for savings, other than one conforming to a general law, and in my judgment the time has arrived for considering the expediency of enacting a general law to apply to the formation of trust companies." The report concludes as follows: "When we regard for a moment the social force developed, the thrift and frugality which our savings banks have effected, we wonder no less at the results which they have achieved than at the quiet manner in which they have performed the work. It has been said that at the close of the late war between France and Germany the safety of a nation was centred in the stockings which held its savings. No small element of strength of the Commonwealth is to be found in the institutions for savings which guard the accumulations of the people with a fidelity worthy of all praise and which add lustre among many features of her social and political economy to the fair name of the Empire State."
