I,AND SETTLEMENT AND THE PROVISION OF CREDIT 89 



may repudiate their obligations and abandon their holdings. This is the 

 prime danger of a generous loan policy which, if carried too far, may de- 

 feat its own end. The bank holding the mortgage can, of course, sell any 

 properties reverting to it with the improvements thereon. As the advances 

 were made against the improvements, it need not necessarily incur loss. 

 It may do so, however, and it will lose the settler. During 1914, eighty 

 securities reverted to the bank in this way, fourteen unsold properties were 

 carried over from the previous 3'ear, and sixty were resold, within the year. 

 If the bank's operations must necessarily be curtailed, the number of those 

 resales is almost certain to increase in the future. 



Prospects for the future. — Under the conditions indicated, a premium 

 will be placed upon the possession of private capital by new settlers seeking 

 for land in Western Australia. At the present time good wheat lands are 

 very appreciabl}^ cheaper there than similar lands in the eastern States. 

 Should a period of temporary depression now supervene, in the event and 

 as the result of curtailments by the bank, the difference will become 

 relatively greater. Depreciation of land values in the west can be only 

 temporar3^ At the time of writing the wheat yield of the State for 1915 

 is officially estimated at 13.5 bushels per acre over a record area. A factor 

 likely to affect prices in the future and promote settlement is the opening 

 of land connection with the eastern States over the trans-continental 

 railway promised for the close of the present year. 



