234 THE FUTURE OF OUR AGRICULTURE. 



banks deserve to be supported. In 1894, when in Ireland, 

 on Sir H. Plunkett's invitation, to explain the system to 

 his fellow co-operators, I explained it also to the late Colonel 

 Dease, at that time Governor of the Bank of Ireland, and 

 to the Manager of the Country Business of that Bank. 

 And they were both fully satisfied and declared their perfect 

 willingness to enter into business relations with societies 

 formed as I suggested — which is just what Joint Stock 

 banks in Ireland, and also in India, have done, without 

 any introduction by a public Department, such as our Board 

 of Agriculture has considered called for when approaching 

 bankers. Good wine needs no bush. It is about time that 

 English bankers gave up their bogy fears. 



However, suspicions entertained by bankers have not been 

 the only obstacle. Somehow those people in high quarters 

 who took any sort of interest — only languid thus far — in the 

 matter seem to have been determined to take the matter 

 up at the wrong end. 



The Central Chamber of Agriculture, as a matter of course, 

 bungled hopelessly. Having heard a paper on Co-operative 

 Banking read by me, on the invitation of its chairman at 

 the time, the present Lord Channing of Wellingborough — 

 in which paper I, of course, had to treat the subject most 

 summarily, since my time was limited to fifteen minutes — 

 it in 1894 appointed a Committee to inquire into the ques- 

 tion. The members of that Committee who really acted 

 were, so far as I heard, the chairman (Mr. Channing's 

 successor), the Secretary of the Chamber and a learned 

 Professor. Their Report was to the effect that this new 

 kind of banking — which had raised millions and millions 

 abroad for people who had no banking account, as we 

 understand it, down to the humblest peasantry, thousands 

 and thousands of them — was nothing but the practice of 

 '' overdraft " already " sufficiently " provided for in this 

 country. Considering that only a very small portion of that 

 business is even now, and scarcely any was at the time, 

 done by overdraft, and that, moreover, complaints were 

 rife in this country about the insufficiency of credit thus 

 practised for farmers, that must be set down as a rather 



