62 SETTLEMENT ON THE LAND 



each colony should be placed in a position to share in 

 the already existing social, educational, and religious 

 life of the neighbourhood. 



IX 



FINANCE AND CREDIT 



As for the finance of the scheme it is not necessary to 

 say more here than that it was carefully thought out 

 by the Committee and that it was proposed that 

 £2,000,000 should be appropriated for the purpose. 

 The expenditure, it should be remembered, will serve 

 the purpose of agricultural education, and it is antici- 

 pated that it will be repaid to the State. As an earnest 

 of this hope the Committee pointed out that the 

 £5,250,000 advanced to County Councils under the 

 Small Holdings Act is gradually being repaid with 

 interest. 



A word must be said in praise of the wise proposal 

 to imitate the credit banks of Egypt and India. Co- 

 operative credit has made surprisingly little headway 

 in this country, though the system is very badly needed. 

 Meanwhile the annual turnover of the Raffeisen banks 

 in Germany has reached £300,000,000. The Committee 

 recommended that the State should lend a small amount 

 of money to co-operative credit societies estabhshed 

 in connection with the colonies. 



It is to be hoped that this will be a beginning of better 

 things. In foreign countries credit is the commonplace 

 of agricultural enterprises. How small English farmers 

 have done even as well as they have without it is a 

 mystery. The small English owner who wants money 



