AGRICULTURAL CREDIT..—DAVIDSON. 479 
the Dominion Government can deduct allowances from the 
Dominion subsidies to the provinces. And still further legislation 
is demanded by the Irish party. 
The Irish land question stands by itself, and perhaps it were 
as well not to quote Irish agrarian legislation as a precedent ; 
but there is no such objection to the precedent established in our 
sister colonies of New Zealand and Australia. There the prin- 
ciple of using state credit to assist the farmer has been carried 
out on a very large scale. The policy has still to stand the test 
of experience, and particularly the experience of hard times. At 
present the policy is still popular. The New Zealander, accord- 
ing to his eulogist, Mr. Lloyd, uses his national credit to get 
money in London to lend again in advances to settlers and free 
the farmer from the high rates of interest he is paying the pri- 
vate bankers. (Newest England, p. 151.) New Zealand began 
this policy in 1893, and since then its example has been followed 
by New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria. The system 
is described thus by Mr. Lloyd: 
“The world over, one of the greatest obstacles in the way of 
the small farmer, and the large one, is the difficulty of getting 
capital. Often there is no money to be borrowed in the district 
where he lives, or if there is, it is in the hands of rich neigh- 
bours or banks, who know nothing but their bond and the 
pound of flesh. But in New Zealand the settler has only to go 
to the nearest post office to get into communication with a 
money lender who charges no commission or brokerage, and no 
fees, except for actual expenses, never exacts usury, offers no 
cut-throat mortgages for signature, will let him have any 
amount from as little as $125 to as much as $15,000, has never 
foreclosed, does not try to induce him to borrow more than he 
really needs ; if he has no freehold, will lend on leasehold and 
good will and improvements, gives him thirty-seven and a half 
years to pay the money back, and accepts it from him in small 
instalments of principal with every payment of interest, so as 
to make it as little of a burden as can be, will allow him if he 
happens to have $25 to spare, to pay it in at any time to reduce 
