60 Building Societies their Working and Advantages 



ship is about 630,000. The money lent on mortgage is up- 

 wards of 62,000,000, the share capital is 47,000,000, and 

 the deposits amount to 16,000,000. The average yearly 

 amount advanced by these societies is 9,000,000, and 

 the yearly profit is 4,000,000. These figures testify to 

 the importance of the work of the building societies, and 

 there is no doubt that in future years they will play a 

 still larger part in the welfare of our country. Some 

 of the largest building societies are centred in London, 

 but there is no county which has done so much as 

 Yorkshire in establishing so many nourishing institu- 

 tions, especially in Halifax, Bradford, and Leeds. 



There are two great classes of building societies, the 

 terminating and the permanent. As the latter are 

 largely in the majority and the former are gradually 

 decreasing, we will consider the work of a permanent 

 building society which is founded on a very simple 

 basis. Money is collected in various sums, mostly 

 small, from large numbers of people, and lent to others 

 who borrow for purposes of building or buying house 

 or other property. It will thus be seen that a building 

 society has two classes of members investors and 

 borrowers. 



First, we will consider the investors, who may be 

 either shareholders or depositors. We will suppose a 

 member chooses to invest some money in the shares 

 of the society. For this purpose he takes a share of 

 the value of 25, and he may pay this sum in full upon 

 joining, or by monthly subscriptions of not less than 

 half-a-crown. When the share has been completed the 

 dividend on it is sent to the shareholder half-yearly; 

 but before the share is fully paid up the dividend is 

 added to the credit of the member half-yearly. 



