CHEAP AGRICULTURAL CREDIT. 135 



ment of payment of instalments may be granted 

 by the Board up to 60 per cent, of the value 

 of improvements. The lessee must personally 

 reside during eight months in each year on his 

 allotment, and for six years he must carry out 

 prescribed improvements. Thereafter he may, 

 with permission, transfer, assign, mortgage, or 

 sublet his allotment. After twelve years, if all 

 conditions have been fulfilled, a Crown grant 

 will be issued. 



It is not necessary to describe the other 

 systems in Queensland, West Australia, South 

 Australia, and Tasmania. They are alike in 

 their main features. But the extent to which 

 Australia, as a whole, helps the farmer with 

 cheap money may be shown by the totals for 

 the States. Up to 1911 the various States had 

 advanced £8,063,072 to farmers on Credit Fon- 

 der lines, and the sum outstanding then was 

 £4,251,930, and the transactions as audited 

 had resulted in profits to the various Govern- 

 ments, totalling £27,233. That seems to be an 

 ideal system, especially as regards its micro- 

 scopic profits. The States had loaned money 

 at actual ' cost price " to the farmer, and the 



