THE RURAL PKOHLKM 85 



allotment holders where the need for them is apparent. 

 Advice is to be given to the officers of a society on matters 

 of bookkeeping and assistance in the audit of the annual 

 returns free of charge, and so long as they are satisfied 

 that the society is being conducted on sound business lines 

 managers may accept, when offered, the post of unpaid 

 treasurer, provided it does not involve membership of the 

 society. Interest is to be allowed to societies at the rate of 

 2 per cent, on the daily credit balance on current account 

 and at the rate of 2\ per cent, on a reserve fund deposit 

 account. Facilities for loans are also to be given, but only 

 on ordinary banking principles. 



The present position cannot be considered very satisfactory, 

 but here again much will depend on the work done by the 

 re-constituted A.O.S. 



The credit bank movement has been principally developed 

 in Germany, where it began with the Raiffeisen banks, which 

 are essentially local in character and based on the principle 

 not only of co-operation, but of unlimited liability. In that 

 country there are 17,300 societies, of which over five-sixths 

 are of the Raiffeisen type, with 1,070,000 members. In 

 France, where they receive subscriptions for initial expenses, 

 and to meet the extra burden of bad years, there were on 

 December 31st, 1911, 97 regional banks and 3,946 affiliated 

 local banks, with 185,552 members. In Ireland, 268 

 societies and 17,403 members. 



In Belgium there are also credit banks of the Raiffeisen 

 type, numbering in 1913 738, with 21,892 agricultural 

 members, apart from 16 agricultural comptoirs, which made 

 loans amounting to three million francs in 1910. In Italy 

 there are two kinds of village banks, (a) the Agrarian banks, 

 which are in effect country branches of either a people's 

 bank or a savings bank ; (6) rural banks, which have com- 

 plete self-government and can themselves utilise deposits for 

 the purpose of making advances. In both cases the village 

 banks can draw on the people's bank or on the savings bank 

 for funds to lend out to their members, and in most cases the 

 village banks are based on the Raiffeisen principle of un- 

 limited liability. In Hungary there are 280 co-operative 

 banks ; and in Holland 582, mostly of the Raiffeisen type, 



