CHEAP AGRICULTURAL CREDIT. 129 



This provided for a State loan of £500,000 to a 

 Board, which sum was to be re-lent to farmers in 

 sums not exceeding £200, on terms providing 

 for the payment of 4 per cent, interest, and 

 repayment of the principal by instalments within 

 ten years. This was found to be inadequate, 

 and successive amendments raised the amount of 

 an individual loan allowed to £1,500, extended 

 the period of repayment to thirty-one years, 

 and devoted £1,000,000 of State money to the 

 fund. In 1906 a further big step forward was 

 taken. The total sum made available was 

 raised to £2,000,000 ; the conditions of loans 

 were made more liberal ; sums up to £2,000 

 could now be lent. The Loan Commissioners 

 were allowed — and this was the most important 

 improvement — not only to lend money to help 

 persons already on the land, but also to help 

 them to get on the land. A person anxious to 

 settle on the land could borrow up to 80 per 

 cent, of the value of the farm he wished to 

 acquire. In this new development the system 

 of helping with cheap credit the man on the 

 land trenched upon another concurrent system, 

 of helping closer settlement with the aid of 



