442 PROVISION OF BORROWING FACILITIES. 



part of their programmes. I think I can quite safely go further than 

 that and say that unless co-operative banks do make popular education 

 part of their business they will decay just as rapidly as they have 

 sprung up. I take exactly the same view of the industrial aspect of 

 co-operative work. Commencing, quite simply, with societies for credit 

 and thrift, Central Provinces weavers are turning out better and more 

 marketable staff and are already buying raw materials wholesale. They 

 have just commenced to think of co-operative sale ; and they 

 are asking for the tty shuttle looms they flatly refused to 

 consider only two years ago. Brass and bell-metal workers are 

 difficult people to persuade ; but even they are commencing to use 

 stamping presses and improved lathes specially designed for their needs 

 by MR. COVE, Headmaster of the School of Handicrafts in Nagpur. 

 These are encouraging signs ; and there can be no doubt that 

 as the co-operative credit and banking machinery becomes more 

 efficient, faster, and less clumsy in operation, co-operative enterprise 

 will extend to the production of superior varieties of wheat and 

 cotton, to the breeding of pedigree cattle, to the control and mange- 

 ment of cotton gins to the wholesale disposal of manufactured articles, 

 to the production of pure seed of guaranteed quality and germination. 

 We are already doing something to direct popular effort in these 

 directions. But I hold that Government need be in no hurry to in- 

 troduce these schemes for they will be found knocking at the door as 

 soon as our banking and credit arrangements are in order. 



A little first-hand knowledge of co-operative work has an excellent 

 effect upon those who form, upon theories and book learning, opinions 

 which are too optimistic or too pessimistic. In co-operative affairs 

 simple facts count for so much; and Registrars have to deal with 

 things as they are and not as they ought to be. The interests at 

 stake are so great and so complex that they cannot but be, and must 

 always continue to be, the intimate concern of Government. But as 

 I have already said, the co-operative movement can easily be ruined 

 and the whole structure of our banks and societies can be brought 

 crashing to the ground by either too much or too little control. It is 

 the duty of the Registrar to act as co-operative adviser to Government 

 as well as to the people; it is the task of the Registrar to see that 

 official and unofficial efforts are blended harmoniously together. 

 He must take his good where he finds it; he must know the 

 waters over which he has to pilot the movement; and he must 



