DOMINION OF CANADA. 



15 



West pay higher rates. They are considered perfectly safe too when vouched for by 

 the officers of the provincial governments. In the Maritime Provinces, more particu- 

 larly _ in Saskatchewan, there is a special department of government that supervises 

 municipal bond issue. While no government guarantee goes with this, the government 

 undertakes to protect the investor to the extent of preventing municipahties from issu- 

 ing bonds for a greater amount than they are able to take care of. For this reason 

 western mimicipal bonds are considered safe investments when they have government 

 endorsation as to the abiUty of the mvmidpality to pay. In Alberta somewhat similar 

 control of municipal bond issue is in force. 



Established that a municipal bond is a safe investment, what are their advantages 

 to the investor? They provide a safe and profitable investment; extending over long 

 terms there is no bother about renewal as in the case of mortgages; municipal bonds 

 are accepted by banks as security for temporary loans; they are always saleable and if 

 need be can be realized on at any time; interest is usually payable twice a year and 

 can be easily collected through any bank for a normal charge. A bank may break, a 

 manufacturing concern may become insolvent, but there has rarely been a case in 

 Canada where a municipahty has failed to pay bonds when due. A municipality is 

 always good for its bond issue. 



INVESTMENTS FOR FARMERS. 



Many merchants whose skill in. buy- 

 ing and selling has enabled them to 

 make large profits, lose their surplus 

 profits, steadily and consistently, ^by 

 rash ventures in real estate. iMany 

 skilled farmers, careful husbandmen, 

 shrewd judges of the immediate 

 things affecting the production of 

 crops, lose their savings by buying 

 stock in Ill-founded enterprises, ikler- 

 chant, housewife, farmer, — practically 

 every class in the community, may 

 master the ordinary problems of their 

 particular business; but of money, the 

 most obedient and the most powerful 

 of servants, many are but poor mas- 

 ters. The hundred dollars, or ten 

 thousand dollars which might well be 

 "hired out," that is to say invested at 

 a good "wage," or rate of interest, is 

 either risked foolishly, or because Its 

 owner has had losses or has seen 

 other men's fortimes wiped out, is 

 buried "in an old iron kettle in a hole 

 in the ground, underneath the wood- 

 pile." iStorekeeping, housekeeping, 

 farming or any other thing of skill, Is 

 considered easier than investing. 



The great centres of investment are 

 the cities, and because the farmer is in- 

 convenient to the city, or not well 

 acquainted with its methods, he is at 

 "a disadvantage which only thought, 

 study, and general quickness of ob- 

 servation can overcome. Very often, 

 because of this the farmer-investor 

 makes his investments locally. He 

 lends money to his neighbors on their 

 notes. He takes a mortgage on a 

 farm. He goes to the nearby county 

 town and there entrusts his funds to 

 a private banker, to be let out in such 

 InTestments as the banker thinks are 



sound. It may be that all his savings 

 are placed in the savings bank. Such 

 are the chief local places of "Invest- 

 ment." The farmer may, it is true, be 

 able to estimate the honesTty and 

 earning capacity of the neighbor h© 

 lends to; or sufficiently skilled in 

 judging the worth of farm land to know 

 just how much is wise to invest ia 

 any one mortgage. He may hav€> 

 means of assuring himself that the 

 banker's methods of operating are 

 safe. He may be content, for the sake 

 of safety, to leave his funds earning 

 three per cent, in the local branch 

 savings bank — at about three-fifths of 

 the fair rate of interest on a soun<i 

 investment. 



But It is the great outer world ot 

 investment that must ultimately be 

 faced and understood by the great ma- 

 jority of men with savings for which 

 to find employment, and to this realm 

 of 'business, men continue to turn for 

 opportunities to invest their funds. It 

 is essential then, that the farmer se- 

 cures an absolutely safe investment, 

 yielding a fair rate of interest — 5 i>er 

 cent. — without trouble and inconveni- 

 ence. Tbe mortgage corporations of 

 Ontario provide such an investment in 

 the form of Mortgage Corporation De- 

 bentures, which are secured by mort- 

 gages on improved properties, and al- 

 so, the total assets of the Corporation. 

 According to Government statistics, 

 not a dollar has ever been lost in 

 Canadian Mortgage Corporation De- 

 bentures. The interest is paid every 

 six months through your own bank, so 

 there cannot possibly be any trouble 

 in collecting. Thousands of farmers 

 have thousands of dollars invested In 

 debentures. 



