INTRODUCTION 11 



" Surely here is sufficient security and return 

 for an investor. 



WANTED AN AGRICULTURAL BANK 



" The individual, however, does not generally 

 welcome an investment which means a lock-up 

 of capital for a number of years, and therefore, 

 on a large scale, much help cannot be expected 

 from the public as individual investors. What 

 is really wanted is an agricultural bank, with a 

 Government or semi-official backing a bank 

 that could raise money at low rates, and lend it 

 to the planters at 7 to 8 per cent. There is 

 enormous scope for such an institution, as Malaya 

 is at present without one. There are exchange 

 banks, certainly ; but plantation loans and real 

 estate mortgages are beyond their charter. The 

 F.M.S. Government from time to time assists 

 planters with loans ; but the amount available is 

 small in proportion to the requirements, and the 

 relief given is consequently very limited. 



An agricultural bank would have a fine field in 

 which to operate, and if it encouraged the small 

 depositor it would at the same time be establish- 

 ing a feeling of thrift at present almost unknown 

 in Malaya among the natives. There is, of 

 course, in the Straits a small post office savings 

 bank, but it is little understood, and the ordinary 

 individual has not the slightest knowledge of 

 how its funds are administered certainly it is 

 not for the development of agriculture, now the 

 backbone of the colony. 



