INFORMATION RELATING TO INSURANCE AND THRIFT 



c) to popularize the rules for the constitution and the good working 

 of co-operative and mutual institutions (mutual insurance against losses 

 from hail, fire, accidents of labour etc.), and to disseminate thrift and 

 popular education in the country ; 



d) to organize carefully the collection of complete statistics as to 

 mutual societies and data relative to their working. 



The action of the office extends into every district and is exercised ; 

 i) by oral propaganda, 2) by the circulation of pamphlets of propaganda, 

 3) in pursuit of its aim, that of determining the formation, installation and 

 administrative control of mutual societies. It will enter into relations 

 with the itinerant chairs of agriculture and the authorities and institutions 

 which can best assist its action. 



The resources necessary'- to its work are formed of the quota paid for 

 participation by the institutions belonging to it (provinces, communes, 

 savings funds, popular banks, agricultural unions, etc.) by the State's 

 contributions and by other eventual receipts. The work of the office is 

 directed by a managing commitee composed of five members chosen from 

 the delegates of institutions making grants and from the best known local 

 persons, besides the representatives of the Ministries of the Interior and of 

 Agriculture. This commission chooses from its own number a president, 

 a vice-president and a secretary. Its task is to see that the funds, of which 

 we have already spoken, are regularly employed. The office is entrusted 

 to the care of a director, who should be a specialist in agricultural subjects 

 or a veterinary surgeon and who is nominated by the National Institute of 

 Agricultural Mutuality. 



4. A NEW MUTUAL INSURANCE SOCIETY AGAINST THE ACCIDENTS OF AGRI- 



CULTURE. 



Pending the law on the compulsory insurance of peasants a mutual 

 society for insurance against the accidents of agriculture (i) has recently 

 been formed at Rome under the name of " Terra Italica ". The initiative 

 was due to the sjnidicate for the insurance of woodcutters and the society 

 has gained the adherence of most of the members of that syndicate and 

 of many farms in the various districts of Italy. 



* 



5. ITALIAN SAVINGS ON 30 JUNE 1916. 



We take the following data from the Esposizione finanziaria fatta alia 

 Camera dei Deputati nella Seduta del 14 Decemhre 1916, the report made by 



(i) For the other mutual funds for iusurance against the accidents of agriculture active 

 in Italy see International Review of Agricultural Economics, January 191 7, pp. 43-55- 



