PROVISION OF BORROWING FACILITIES. 44-1 



salary ; compound interest at 6 per cent, is allowed on these contribu- 

 tion and is credited to each account. Dishonesty and gross neglect of 

 duty are punished by forfeiture of all claims to any share in the Provi- 

 dent Fund. Before full privileges in the Fund arc allowed 15 years of 

 approved service must have beeu completed : while special rewards are 

 promised to service of exceptional merit and length. Such, in brief 

 outline, is the Central Provinces Union of Co-operative Banks which, 

 unless I am absolutely mistaken, will help not a little in the advance- 

 ment of popular education on practical co-operative linos. 



In conclusion I must mention the valuable work being done by co- 

 operative banks in the technical improvement of agriculture and indus- 

 tries. Through the channels opened out by Central Banks, by their 

 agency and with the assistance of their Directors, the experts of the 

 Agricultural and Industrial Department, whose task, as we all know, is 

 one of extreme difficulty, are steadily getting into touch with societies 

 of men willing and prepared (though by no means perfectly prepared) 

 to listen to them. This satisfactory result has been gained because, 

 through Central Banks, communication has been rendered possible with 

 the small individual cultivator or artisan in his isolation, and his igno- 

 rance. From their Central Banks, moreover, societies [can obtain 

 on equitable terms, the funds for better seed, better implements, and 

 better cattle, and better silk, better yarn, purer metal, without putting 

 their heads into the noose which that universal person, the usurer, knows 

 so well how to slip tight at his own convenience. If lack of wholesome 

 credit stood in the way of agricultural and industrial improvement a 

 few years ago it need do so no longer. And as popular education in co- 

 operative methods progresses the efforts of the Agricultural and Indus- 

 trial Department must become more and more effective. Our best 

 banks are already thinking of having their own small demonstration 

 farms which can easly be inspected and guided by the Agricultural 

 Department. These farms will adjoin the new buildings which banks 

 must build themselves before very long, and thus situated they will 

 serve as continuous object lessons to the many thousandsjof cultivation 

 who come to the Central Banks for money. I have already been asked 

 by ifhimaginative people why co-operative banks should undertake 

 work of this kind. My reply is that in the best and most successful 

 kinds of modern business the science of philanthropy has been found 

 both necessary and profitable. From the purely business point of view 

 I am sure that it will pay co-opcrativo banks to make popular education 



r>r> 



