ccxo 



delivery ; they are repayable at par after three years on three riionths' 

 notice being given to the holder. 



They are recommended as safe and suitable investment for persons 

 of small means, municipalities and friendly societies. The law permits 

 trust moneys to be invested in them, without application to any legal 

 tribunal. The security for these debentures is the whole amount of 

 property mortgaged to the bank and the paid-up share capital of the 

 bank on which the State guarantees 4 per cent, interest. The numer- 

 ous mortgage debts of various amounts due to the bank, and each 

 secured on a certain special property are, as it were, converted into 

 stock and issued in amounts found to suit the convenience of the public. 



The whole amount of the bank's transactions may seem small ; but 

 it is to be remembered that its operations are confined to a district and 

 population which are not as large as some counties in Ireland. The 

 county of Antrim, exclusive of the borough of Belfast, is about the 

 same size and has about the same population as Canton de Vaud. 



The success of this bank earning for its shareholders the modest 

 dividend of 5 per cent, is due to the countenance and guarantee of the 

 State not so much as to the system of land transfer and registration of 

 charges, without which its operations could not be carried on at all. 



The effect of the State aid extends its operations and keeps the rate 

 of interest charged somewhat lower than it otherwise would be. The 

 State aid would be of little avail if the general law was not adapted to 

 the needs of the country, making transfer and registration charges so 

 easy, that price of the land is quoted by the yards and sales are rnade 

 with quite as much facility and with same certainty as to costs as sales 

 of shares and stock in this country. 



Transfer of land by deed in comparison with transfer on the record 

 of title system seems as antiquated and cumbrous as the use of metal in 

 bulk in place of coin. In the one case the metal must be assayed and 

 weighed at every transfer ; in the other its quality and weight are 

 known at sight. 



Under a perfected system of recording titles it is seldom that the 

 title cannot be kept written up. Its state and ownership can be ascer- 

 tained at a glance, and a legal certificate can be obtained in a few minutes. 

 The delays and uncertainty of the other system are only too familiar to 

 persons in this country who have had dealings with lands. 



Another Swiss Land Credit Bank, the " Banque Fonciere de Jura,^' 

 without any State aid or guarantee, also pays 5 per cent, on its paid-up 

 capital. Its head-quarters are at Delemont, the most prosperous part 

 of the Canton of Berne. This Bank, however, charges from 4f to 5 

 per cent, for most of its loans and pays from 4j to 4^ on all its deben- 

 tures. Money is obtained on its debentures so easily that it has 

 abandoned a contemplated increase of its paid-up capital. In their 

 report for 1883, the directors say that the interest and annuities due 

 have been satisfactorily paid and that notwithstanding the great depre- 

 ciation in the value of land, not only in the Jura, but throughout the 

 whole of Switzerland and adjoining countries, they have been enabled 

 to sell properties on their hands without loss and sometimes at a profit. 



Mr. H. D. MacLeod, in his Lectures on Credit and Banking, claims 

 for the system of cash credits, as practised in Scotland, similar advan- 



