114 INSTALMENT SYSTEM 



an annual payment of 10 per cent, on the pur- 

 chase price of each holding. If a deposit had 

 been asked and the small holdings applied for 

 on these terms, the occupiers would have ex- 

 perienced great difficulty in finding the instal- 

 ments for the first three years, and many 

 failures would have resulted. As it was, at the 

 end of the time the small- holders, with very 

 few exceptions, had liquidated their capital 

 account, and were in a position to receive the 

 deeds for their freeholds. 



The period of loan is, however, too short for 

 general purposes. As is the usual custom, 

 small owners at Winterslow built houses on 

 their properties. The instalments on their 

 houses, together with the instalments on the 

 land, were a somewhat heavy strain on their 

 resources. And although disbursements to 

 Landholders' Court, Ltd., were met with 

 great promptitude, these annual payments to 

 the Company are rumoured to have been 

 defrayed at the expense of local shopkeepers 

 and tradespeople, who, it is suggested, incurred 

 certain bad debts during this period. The 

 margin for the security of the loan in this case 

 is obviously too fine, and it is in the scheme at 



