368 PROVISION OF BORROWING FACILITIES. 



trade, marriages and payment of assessment ; usually the order stated 

 is that given above, and the last-named is only mentioned by one 

 Nidhi. In a very few eases is the improvement of lands (digging of 

 Wells) mentioned but the purchase of lands and of cattle are 

 occasionally stated, the redemption of prior debt is common, and in 

 some cases the repayment of a Government loan is mentioned, 

 probably when a loan has been called in for breach of conditions. It 

 is to be remembered that nearly all these Nidhis are in towns, mostly 

 large ones ; hence, agriculture is seldom represented, and the 

 Government assessments are those due by considerable and absentee 

 proprietors. Nearly all Nidhis expressly state that they do not 

 interest themselves in the purpose for which the loan is required, they 

 look only to tlm security, this seems to be universal. Even when the 

 form of application contains a query as to the purpose for which the 

 loan is required, it is merely put to guard against any objection by 

 third parties that the loan was granted otherwise than for useful 

 family purposes, or it is, rarely, a relic of a past attempt at control ; 

 two Madras societies stated that this control was once customary, and 

 that formerly loans were only granted by instalments, after ascertaining 

 that the money had been used for the specified purpose, probably 

 house-building. This practice seems to have generally died out, and 

 was only intended to safeguard the security given to the Nidhi, as for 

 instance, when money was granted for repairing a house which was 

 the security for the loan. In this matter the Nidhis have adopted 

 the ordinary commercial practice and fall short of the true co-operative 

 principle of the guided, guarded and controlled use of credit ; it is the 

 influence of the society on its members towards prudence and 

 productive borrowing which is one chief function of the German and 

 Italian Credit Unions, a function entirely missed by societies which care 

 only for the security of their money and the due return of profits. 



Government intervention. All societies have to be registered in the 

 office of the Registrar for Joint Stock Companies ; they qbtain 

 incorporation by this registration and fall under the operation of 

 the Act. The duties of the Registrar are simply those of 

 registration, the examination of the articles, the issue <of a 

 certificate of incorporation, the registration of any changes, the 

 levjnng of certain fees, the grant of inspection of documents and of 

 copies, and the writing of an annual report, which, however, is not 

 intended to be more than a skeleton of bare facts. District Magistrates 



