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408 METHODS OF SOCIAL REFORM
1859, and extensions and improvements are frsquently announced.
In safety and eventual certainty of acquittance,
money orders leave little to be desired. Tho payer has only
to walk to the nearest Money Order Mice; wait five or ten
minutes while othor customers 5re being served ; fill up a small
application form; decide, after mature deliberation with the
postmaster, and reference to R private official list, upon the
Money Order Office most convenient to the payee; than wait
until the order is duly filled up, counterfoiled, stamped, etc. ;
and finally hand over his money, and his work is done, with the
exception of oncJosing the order in the properly addressed
lottvr. ‘I’ho payec, too, may bc sure of getting his money, if
all goes mcll. liu need only walk to the Money Order Ofice
namod, sign tho order, givo tho name of the remitter, and then
tho postmaster, if satisfied that all is right, and if furnished
with tho indispcnsable advice note from the remitting office,
will presently hand over the cash. But sometimes the advice
noto has not arrived, nncl the applicant must call again; not
uncommonly the payer, with the kindest intentions, has mado
the order payable at n, distant office, imagining, for instance,
that Hampsteaci Road Post Office must bc very convenient to a
resident of 1Iatnpstead. The payee ulust thon make a tour in
sertrch of thct required office-unless indeed he or his friend
happens to lmvc u banking account, when all goes smoothly in
a moment, nnd the bnnkcr instantly rclicves him of further
labour in obtaining the seven shillings and sixpence, or other
small sum, which the Postmaster-General holds for his benefit.
13ut~, seriously speaking, time is too valuable to allow us to
dcal with many money orders. Business men must long ago
have domandkd a complete reform of the system, were it not
thnt the bankers came to the rescue of tho department, by
agreeing to collect the orders, and the Post Office people soon
discovered thnt the banker was the safest and easiest medium
of collection.
Within tho last six or seven years, however, an interesting
attempt has been made to replace money orders by bankers’
cheqnes. There used to be a tradition that it was illegal to
draw a cheque for less thsn twenty shillings; and many people