276 IRELAND 



only were the borrowers as much as a single 

 week late in their repayments. Even this fact 

 displeased the local committee, who imposed a 

 penalty of threepence on each of the eleven 

 borrowers for being in arrear. 



All this may seem to be very paltry to a 

 financier accustomed to dealing with large sums 

 of money ; but to the impoverished peasantry 

 of Ireland it represents a substantial boon in 

 regard to the material help afforded, while there 

 are, also, good moral results secured in the 

 teaching of a sense of responsibility, and in the 

 inculcating of business principles. From the 

 latter standpoint even the threepenny fines 

 have a value which cannot be gainsaid. Alto- 

 gether one can readily sympathize with the 

 declaration of one Irish farmer who described 

 the local agricultural credit bank as " the Good 

 Samaritan of the district." It is hoped, how- 

 ever, that people in Ireland who have money 

 to invest may be induced to pay it into the 

 rural banks on interest, in order that such banks 

 may have a larger capital available, and, also, 

 to promote a community of feeling between the 

 different classes. On the one hand it is sought 

 to persuade the comparatively poor to deposit 

 their modest savings in the rural banks, instead 

 of hiding them in the rafters, or storing them 



