274 PROVISION OF BOEUOWING FACILITIES. 



assistance ? I have already said that we propose to exempt for the 

 present their profits and operations from income-tax, stamp-duties, 

 and registration-fees. We shall also authorise them to open public 

 accounts in the Post Office Savings Banks ; and these measures will 

 apply equally to urban and to rural societies. In the case of urban 

 societies we propose to go no further. 



As to whether Government should contribute to the capital 

 of rural societies the most opposite and extreme views have been 

 urged upon us. It has been suggested that we should finance them 

 entirely ; but such a procedure would be destructive of that thrift 

 and co-operation and mutual self-help which it is our object to 

 encourage. It has been proposed that the distribution of Government 

 takavi advances should be entrusted to these societies -, and I think 

 it quite possible that some day we may be able to make use of those 

 among them which have taken root and flourished, and which stand 



o 



on a strong and independent basis of their own, as valuable agencies 

 for the purpose. But they must learn to swim before they are thrown 

 into deep water ; to take care of their own money before they are 

 trusted with much of ours ; and to allow them to regard themselves 

 as mere agencies for the distribution and recovery of Government 

 advances would wholly defeat the object of their creation. 



From the opposite point of view it has been argued that any 

 financial assistance whatever from Government must obscure the 

 co-operative principle, and weaken the spirit of self-dependence which 

 we desire to foster ; and it has been urged that Government should 

 confine itself to sympathy and encouragement and moral support. 

 To this it has been replied, and not without reason, that assistance 

 thus restricted would be but cold comfort. We fully recognise the 

 danger which is pointed out; and we propose so to limit our assistance 

 as to minimise that danger as far as possible, by laying down that it 

 must be preceded by, and must depend in its amount, upon a genuine 

 subscription by the people themselves. But, subject to mese condi- 

 tions, we are prepared to give financial assistance at they start. We 

 believe that such assistance will have a value beyond its mere use as 

 capital on easy terms, since it will be an earnest of the reality of the 

 interest which Government takes in the matter, while the terms to 

 which it will be subject will stimulate the thrift and self-help that 

 are to be a condition precedent. We do not contemplate that our 



will always be needed. Both in the matter of detailed guidance 



