128 OUR ENGLISH LAND MUDDLE. 



None of this is possible without organized 

 assistance. The British population has been 

 long divorced from the land ; many of our 

 agriculturists have been driven abroad ; the 

 old farms call in many cases for work of restora- 

 tion ; the new farms will have to be cultivated 

 to a large extent by " weak " farmers, who will 

 require some nursing. Credit Fancier can be 

 recommended as a sound nurse. 



That system can to-day be, perhaps, best 

 studied in Australia. All the Australian State 

 Governments have Credit Fonder svstems, and 

 balance sheets are available showing every detail 

 of their working over a great number of years. 

 These balance sheets show that the system is 

 not an expense to the Government. The 

 State's credit is used, but the State's revenue 

 is not depleted. The enormous national advan- 

 tage of keeping the small landholder out of the 

 grip of usurers, and of preventing him from 

 being forced from the land, is secured without 

 any cost at all. 



Taking the Australian States in detail. New 

 South Wales initiated a Credit Fonder system 

 with the Advances to Settlers Act of 1899. 



