18 MAY 1918, Page 11

WASTE OF PAPER.

[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] Sni,—We are exhorted to study and practise economy, but how many causes of waste go unchecked ? There is a shortage of paper, as you tell your readers every week, and I have lately been charged 5s. 7d. a ream for notepaper and Is. 4d. a hundred for envelopes which were listed at 2s. 2d. and aid. respectively last year. Still the senseless waste of paper, printing, and labour con- tinues. Last week a single post brought four prints of a circular covering forty-four pages sent to members of my family, also a receipt for an account paid, with a lithographed memo- acknow- ledging my remittance; of what use is the latter ? When a bank returns a pass-book either a card or memo. is sent (with the manager's compliments). Does this help to " win the war "? Our big joint-stock banks have some five hundred branches; if on au average ten pass-books are posted daily, five thousand circular?' per diem, thirty thousand a week, or one and a half millions per annum will be manufactured, folded, posted, and carried for no good purpose. If the attention of all bankers and tradesmen was specifically called to the folly thus committed by some one in authority, I feel sure the habit would cease, and possibly other means of saving material brought from oversee would present itself to persons, who were induced by this example, presented in concrete form, to practise economy.—I am. Sir, 111.e.,