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GRANT OF LOANS AND ADVANCE* TO AGRICULTURISTS. 



all is that we propose now to consult the Government of Bombay on 

 the possibility of introducing such a scheme into a selected area in the 

 Deccan. In the meantime, the necessity remains for amending the 

 existing law, not only on the small technical point which I have 

 mentioned, but also on the various grounds given by Mil. CROSTHWAITE. 

 We wish to amend the defects in procedure, we wish to simplify the 

 procedure in every direction, to shorten the operations and various 

 processes through which the ryot has to go before he can get his 

 loan ; we wish for permission to reduce fees and stamp-duties ; we 

 wish to bring the interest down to the lowest point compatible 

 with justice and fairness to the general taxpayer, and we wish to 

 make the law as elastic as possible, and to leave as much 

 as possible to be provided for by the rules of the various Local 

 Governments. 



These are the objects with which the Bill is brought in, and 

 I have no doubt that, in the hands of my Hon'ble friend MR. 

 CROSTHWAITE, these objects will be attained. We have also provided 

 experimentally and these provisions will have to be very carefully 

 considered in Select Committee when leave is given to introduce the 

 Bill for permission practically for the Government to make over, 

 in any tract in which an agricultural bank may be started, its money- 

 lending business for agricultural operations altogether. Such banks 

 have not yet been started generally, but I was very much interested 

 in having my attention recently called to a report in the Bengal 

 Government Gazette by the Commissioner of the Presidency Division 

 of Bengal, giving an account of an agricultural bank which has been 

 started in Jessore. That bank is conducted entirely by Native 

 managers, and it has been started by Native capital. It is principally 

 concerned with deposits by agriculturists, but it has also a good deal 

 of loan work. Naturally, you will ask, if an agricultural bank in 

 Bengal can do loan work, why should we have been so much hampered 

 with regard to the security of the land and the crops ? The answer is 

 given in the Commissioner's report on the bank. The bank lends only 

 on the security of zamindaris and patni taluqs, that is to say, on what 

 is absolutely, or nearly absolutely, proprietary right, and does not 

 descend to tenures. This, of course, limits to a certain extent the 

 usefulness of the bank from our point of view, but still it is a very 

 useful experiment, and I only hope the example will be followed 

 freely and frequently in other parts of India. 



