[ Extracts from the Proceedings of tJie FonHk Conference of Registrars 

 of Co-operatire Credit Societies. ] 



Mr. R. W. CARLYLE, C.I.E., President of the Conference, said 

 that lie was glad to report that there was no check in the rapid 

 and satisfactory progress of the movement to which he had alluded 

 last year. The figures had not been finally checked and must be 

 accepted as merely provisional. But they showed that the number 

 of societies of all kinds had risen from 1,357 to 2,008, the number 

 of members from 149,160 to 184,897 ; the working capital aggre- 

 gated nearly 81 lakhs of rupees against just over 44 lakhs last year, 

 and the expenditure had increased from less than 47 Inkhs last year 

 to more than 84 lakhs. This was only the fourth annual Conference, 

 but these figures indicated that the movement had already progressed 

 far beyond what could reasonably have been expected by those who 

 were present at the first meeting in 1900. The progress made during 

 the year was all the more satisfactory, because the annual reports 

 showed that in most provinces the aim of the Registrars had been 

 rather to foster growth where the seeds of co-operation had already 

 taken root than to attempt to break new ground. It was also very 

 satisfactory that whereas State aid accounted for only Rs. 6,86,143 

 of the working capital or very little more than last year (Rs. 6,51,816), 

 loans from private persons totalled nearly 25 lakhs of rupees against 

 less than 12^ lakhs at the end of June 1908. Last year in address- 

 ing the Conference he had had occasion to point out that the two 

 questions of vital importance to the future of the movement were 

 the best means of providing for the supervision and the financing 

 of co-operative credit societies. Iii several of the provinces the 

 question of finance seemed to have been solved. lie was rc i fcvrino > 



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in particular to Madras, Burma and the United Provinces, but so fai- 

 ns he could judge, he did not think it probable that this question would 

 give rise to serious difficulties in the Punjab, Central Provinces or 

 Bengal. He did not, of course, mean that in those provinces very 

 large sums of money would at once be forthcoming, but there was 

 reason to believe that money would come forward quite as quickly as 

 it would be possible to establish properly supervised societies. It was 

 too early to say that the question of supervision had been solved any 



