FRIDAY, JUNE 26.—MORNING SESSION, 
10.30 A.M. 
Agricultural Credit Banks and Co-operative Societies. 
Chairman: Tue Rigut Hon. Sir Horace PLuNKETT, 
K.C.V.O., F.R.S., late Vice-President, Department of 
Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland. 
THE CHAIRMAN: Professor Dunstan’ and Gentlemen—We 
are to deal to-day with a subject to which perhaps I may 
attach undue importance, but as we have to deal with it in an 
hour, that renders it impossible for me to do justice to the 
subject without doing grievous injustice to those who have 
prepared papers, and to those who wish to hear them. I 
recognize that there is one limitation upon our discussions. 
We are not here to treat of general principles, but rather of 
their particular application to certain countries, so that I shall 
devote the very few remarks I shall make to what you may 
possibly find of suggestive value in the co-operative move- 
ment generally in these islands. 
As we all know, the co-operative movement began in 
England in the “ hungry forties,’? and has extended since all 
over the world in its various forms. The first thing that I 
have to say about the co-operative movement in England is 
that it hardly touched agriculture at all until the beginning 
of the present century. In Ireland, on the other hand, just 
a quarter of a century ago, the agricultural co-operative 
movement was founded to deal with the special circumstances 
of that country, and there are, I think, a few points in that 
movement which are worthy of consideration from those who 
come from tropical countries. Ireland, of course, is a country 
where, meteorologically speaking, the temperature is low, 
and I realize that I must remember the warning given to us 
by the President of the Congress in his opening Address, 
