AGRICULTURAL CREDIT. DAVIDSON. 479 



the Dominion Government can deduct allowances from the 

 Dominion subsidies to the provinces. And still further legislation 

 is demanded by the Irish party. 



The Irish land question stands by itself, and perhaps it were 

 as well not to quote Irish agrarian legislation as a precedent ; 

 but there is no such objection to the precedent established in our 

 sister colonies of New Zealand and Australia. There the prin- 

 ciple of using state credit to assist the farmer has been carried 

 out on a very large scale. The policy has still to stand the test 

 of experience, and particularly the experience of hard times. At 

 present the policy is still popular. The New Zealander, accord- 

 ing to his eulogist, Mr. Lloyd, uses his national credit to get 

 money in London to lend again in advances to settlers and free 

 the farmer from the high rates of interest he is paying the pri- 

 vate bankers. (Newest England, p. 151.) New Zealand began 

 this policy in 1893, and since then its example has been followed 

 by New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria. The system 

 is described thus by Mr. Lloyd : 



" The world over, one of the greatest obstacles in the way of 

 the small farmer, and the large one, is the difficulty of getting 

 capital. Often there is no money to be borrowed in the district 

 where he lives, or if there is, it is in the hands of rich neigh- 

 bours or banks, who know nothing but their bond and the 

 pound of flesh. But in New Zealand the settler has only to go 

 to the nearest post office to get into communication with a 

 money lender who charges no commission or brokerage, and no 

 fees, except for actual expenses, never exacts usury, offers no 

 cut-throat mortgages for signature, will let him have any 

 amount from as little as $125 to as much as $15,000, has never 

 foreclosed, does not try to induce him to borrow more than he 

 really needs ; if he has no freehold, will lend on leasehold and 

 good will and improvements, gives him thirty-seven and a half 

 years to pay the money back, and accepts it from him in small 

 instalments of principal with every payment of interest, so as 

 to make it as little of a burden as can be, will allow him if he 

 happens to have $25 to spare, to pay it in at any time to reduce 



