EXAMPLES FROM OTHER LANDS 



39 



compulsion — of promoting the formation of credit societies, 

 and guiding them in their work. But the Government, we 

 are further told, " has recognised that its task is something 

 more than this. It is its policy to create a popular move- 

 ment, and gradually to convert the initiative of the State 

 into active propaganda conducted by the people of India 

 themselves, and even, as far as possible, to place the work 

 of financing and supervising the societies in the hands of 

 popular organisations." 



As for the results, Mr. Henry W. Wolff, in the third edition 

 of his book on " People's Banks," declares that " the oppor- 

 tunities furnished by the banks have whetted the popular 

 appetite for more productive methods of husbandry " ; that 

 " the seed of co-operation has in India fallen upon good 

 ground " ; and that " the progress made is quite phe- 

 nomenal." 



This last-mentioned expression is fully warranted. The 

 Co-operative Credit Societies Act, laying down the broad 

 outlines of the system of co-operative credit to be promoted 

 in the various Provinces of India, was not passed until 1904, 

 and in March 1905, there were in India only 35 rural and six 

 urban credit societies ; yet the position in 1910-11, as shown 

 by figures published in the " Statement Exhibiting the 

 Moral and Material Progress and Condition of India during 

 the year 1910-11," issued from the India Office, was as 

 follows : — 



The central societies here referred to comprise (1) central 

 banks, which exist primarily for the purpose of financing 



