WORK DONE OR PROJECTED 225 



Credit Bank to enable it to fulfil a most useful function, for 

 which it would be pre-eminently suited. 



Considering the wide extent of the very practical aid that 

 Continental Governments render to the Central Credit 

 Banks of their own country, it would not be unreasonable to 

 expect from our own Government some degree of financial 

 assistance to the movement here, more especially as the 

 amount involved would be comparatively small, while it 

 would be a matter, not of making an actual grant, but either 

 of advancing a certain sum on loan or of giving a State 

 credit for such sum on the guarantee of shares (unpaid), 

 subscribed for by responsible persons under the constitution 

 of the present Central Co-operative Bank. There is no 

 doubt that, with the desired credit of 25,000, the Central 

 Co-operative Credit Bank would have been able to do much 

 more than has, in the circumstances, been within its powers ; 

 and all that is now required in order that it may begin in 

 earnest with the carrying out of its full programme is the 

 control of some such amount of credit as this. 



It was to a Central Credit Bank operating on the lines here 

 indicated that the A. O. S. looked for a solution of the 

 problem which has arisen ; and it entertained the view that 

 the Government would incur no risk in regard to the small 

 guarantee that would suffice to set up and maintain in 

 working condition agricultural credit machinery of unques- 

 tionable importance, not alone to agricultural organisation, 

 but also to the final success of the elaborate scheme of 

 land settlement by small holdings which it is being sought 

 to establish under the Small Holdings Act. 



The President of the Agricultural Organisation Society 

 has long taken a practical interest in this question of 

 co-operative credit. 



On the initiative of Mr. Yerburgh, the Central Chamber of 

 Agriculture appointed a Committee in November, 1894, 

 " to inquire and report how far the system of agricultural 

 credit banks may be extended to this country." The 

 Committee took the views of various authorities on the 

 subject and presented a report in May, 1895. Pointing to 



A>. Q 



