Official Notices, repeatedly issued, ask the public to keep off the streets during the times fixed for the 'black-out'. The public are responding, and during the winter I believe the public will be less inclined to leave their homes during the period of the 'black-out'.

The provision of reasonable banking facilities is, naturally, our chief concern, and in my judgement, depositors would suffer less inconvenience and be able to carry through their transactions with greater safety if the Bank hours were restricted to the day time.

No real inconvenience would result from discontinuing evening hours of business. Deposits and withdrawals can be made by deputy or through the post, as is frequently done at present.

The employment of the Staff during evening hours, especially the females, is inadvisable, and moreover it interferes with the voluntary service which the Staff, already trained, are giving in connection with civil defence. In any case, I do not consider it wise to expose the female Staff to the risk of travelling from Branches to their homes late at night.

There is another objection to evening hours of opening under existing conditions, viz: the lighting restrictions, and if we can avoid as much as possible the necessity of using lights, we shall be rendering good service.

The curtailment of Joint Stock Bank hours necessitates an adjustment in our procedure. Our hours were devised so that we could obtain money from the Joint Stock Banks between 9:30am and 10am and pay money into such Banks between 2:30pm and 3pm. We can accommodate ourselves to the restricted hours without much difficulty so far as Branches with three or more of a staff are concerned, but some adjustment will be necessary to deal with Branches staffed by only two officers. It means that during the time one officer is making his journey to and from the Joint Stock Bank the Branch will be left with one officer. When the Joint Stock Bank is near to the Branch the risk is not great, but where it is some considerable distance, as in a few cases, we shall have to make other arrangements from Head Office.

This only means a reduction of one hour on the total hours now provided.

I think it would be unreasonable to extend Saturday hours beyond 4pm because the Staff have to leave home about 8am and would not reach home again until 6pm. I also consider it reasonable that the Staff should have one official half day for rest, preparatory to their voluntary service in the Civil Defence organisations.

By adopting the above suggestion we are keeping to existing day hours on Mondays to Fridays, to which depositors are accustomed.

It will be appreciated that whereas Corporation staffs generally are allowed 1 hour or 1½ hours for a mid-day meal, which can be taken off the premises, the Bank staff have to take their meals on the premises. At Head Office definite periods of ½ hour are allowed to each member of staff, but at Branches the meal has to be taken as business permits and equals ½ hour per officer.

Amongst Trustee Savings Banks there is a great variation in the matter of hours of business, but twelve of the largest Banks provide weekly hours as follows:

I asked for the period 2pm to 3pm to be divided to ascertain the difference between closing at 2:30pm as formerly, and 3pm as at present. Figures appear to justify the 3pm closing, and Branch Managers consider the extended half hour to be a convenience to housewives. I think we should accept that view.

Since the Bank was established in 1919, Thursday has been the recognised staff half holiday. It was fixed when evening openings were provided on Mondays and Saturdays, and continued when Friday evening was substituted for Saturday some years later, owing to the change in practice of paying wages at works and factories. There was trend, noticeable pre-war, towards ceasing work earlier on Saturdays so as to obtain a longer weekend period, and some firms adjusted their hours so as to avoid working on Saturdays.

Savings Bank opinion is divided on the question of future hours of business now under consideration. For instance, York County, Blackburn and Nottingham do not favour a reversion to evening hours; Glasgow will probably continue with two evenings; the rest are inclined to opening on one evening only, which they deem sufficient.

My view is that we should adopt Saturday 12 noon as the early closing day and staff holiday, instead of Thursday, and that the Bank should be open from 10am to 3pm from Monday to Friday inclusive. As regards evening hours, I suggest 6 to 8pm on Friday would meet our position.

If these suggestions are accepted, the new hours of business and the corresponding working hours would be:

Although this shows an increase of one hour over the standard for Corporation staffs generally, it does not follow that it would actually be the case. The working hours have been based on an allowance of ½ hour for mid-day meal and a leaving time of 4pm on five days of the week, but where there are a small number of transactions the staff would be able to get away earlier than 4pm. At larger Branches work is not likely to be completed before 4pm. All officers are required to commence work at 9am, but the hour of leaving is left to the Manager, who must be satisfied that essential work has been done. There are pressure periods, when the leaving hour may be later; and times when extra hours have to be worked in tracing excess or short cash, but these can be ignored in considering this matter.

We are, to some extent, governed by the standard of working hours of Corporation staffs, which is 38, and in deciding new permanent hours for depositors that should be kept in mind.