TRANSACTIONS 6¥ SECTION P. 849 



America. Forty years ago 15 per cent. •wa3 commonly paid in the year in interest 

 and commissions by this class of borrowers. By 1893 this had fallen to from 6 to 

 8^ per cent., but the prices of produce had fallen in proportion. In the years 

 1894-96, the Governments of four colonies — New Zealand, South Australia, Western 

 Australia, and Victoria — established money-lending departments for making ad- 

 vances on mortgage to the smaller class of farmers. In this way over 4,000,000/. has 

 already been lent out. Details are given in the paper of 3,600,000/., of which about 

 2,200,000/. has been lent in New Zealand, 790,000/. in Victoria, 530,000/. in South 

 Australia, and 100,000/. in Western Australia. About 450,000/. has already been 

 repaid. The New Zealand Government raises its loan capital by issuing stock in 

 London; the others by selling mortgage bonds from time to time locally. In 

 Victoria, this capital has been obtained at 3 per cent, (from the State Savings 

 Bank) ; in New Zealand it has cost 3^^ per cent., and in South Australia 3^ per 

 cent. The rates charged to farmers are in New Zealand 5 per cent. ; in the 

 Australian colonies 4| per cent. The fees charged by all the State lending 

 offices are very low — lowest of all in South Australia. The management expenses, 

 are, however, small also, and the lending would seem at present to have been done 

 prudently. At any rate, balance-sheets to the end of June 1899 and March 1900 

 show no losses, while of arrears of interest there were none in New Zealand, and but 

 a few hundreds in Australia The lending is done by way of first mortgage on 

 freehold, or on leasehold held from the Crown. The loans are devoted to improving 

 settlers' holdings, or to paying oft" existing mortgages bearing a higher rate of 

 interest. In Western Australia they are restricted to the former purpose ; else- 

 where more than half the money is applied to the latter. The highest sum which 

 may be lent to one borrower is 3,000/. The proportion of loan to security 

 must not exceed 60 per cent, of a freehold, or half the selling value in case 

 of a lease. An interesting feature is the system of repayment of loans by 

 instalment. Under this the borrower pays 6 or 7 per cent, annually, of which 4| 

 or 5 represents intere-st, and the remainder goes to form a sinking fund to 

 extinguish the debt. In New Zealand every loan must thus be repaid by 

 seventy-three half-yearly instalments. The mortgagee may, however, hasten 

 the process by depositing additional sums or paying off' the whole principal 

 •whenever he chooses. In 1899 the Government of New South Wales followed 

 the example of the neighbour colonies and passed an Advances to Settlers Act. 



As an example of the effect of these Acts in reducing rates of interest, it may 

 be remarked that in 1894 almost two-thirds of the money of registered mortgages 

 in New Zealand bore from 6^ per cent, upwards. In 1898 six-sevenths of the mort- 

 gage money was yielding less than 6^ per cent. 



4. Variations of Wages in some Co-jMrtnersMj') Workshops, with some 

 Comparisons with Non-Co-operative Iiidustries. By Robert Halstead, 

 Secretary of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Centre of the Labour 

 Association. 



The difficulty of securing suitable data for the purpose of the paper was con- 

 siderable, owing to the fact that the kind of information required was very local and 

 very special. The officials of thirty-four co-operative productive societies furnished 

 information respecting 4,012 co-operative workers with a total wage of 209,521/. 

 for the year 1899. Fourteen societies sent replies, the total wages of which 

 amounted for that year to 122,313/. The average increase of wages in these 

 co-partnership workshops since 1891 was 9 per cent. Means for comparison with 

 non-co-operative wages are available for 1899 only, which shows a result in favour 

 of co-operation of 7 per cent. Co-operative workers also have two hours a week 

 less than non-co-operative workers. The figures also reveal that a large number of 

 co-partnership workers were connected with their own trade unions. Particulars 

 •were supplied by ten societies, in which 246 workers were concerned, and in which 

 last year the total wages were 9,486/. These showed that the workers had wages 

 in excess of non-co-operative ones in the same trade and district by 11 per cent., 

 1900. 3 1 



