Miscellaneous. 



150 



[Feb. 1908. 



The total membership of the Societies, 

 rural and urban, in Eastern-Bengal is 

 only 3,451, a number which bears but a 

 small proportion to a population of 

 thirty millions. But the growth of a 

 few years has been remarkable and the 

 movement would seem to be on the right 

 lines. There is a refreshing absence of 

 official interference ; indeed, the Registrar 

 of the Societies is disposed to complain 

 that they have been little inspected by 

 District Officers. The Lieutenant-Gover- 

 nor is, however, quite justified in 

 pointing out that what seems a want of 

 interest is really a proof of wise con- 

 sideration for the welfare of the institu- 

 tions. If they are to have a healthy 

 development they must be conducted for 

 the people by the people. Official inte- 

 ference, with its repression of originality 

 and its stamp of patronage would kill 

 all the vitality of the Societies, while its 

 place is now being taken to great advant- 

 age by the active assistance, in personal 

 service and in money, of enlightened 

 zemindars, Hindu ladies, and philan- 

 thropic Mohammedans. If the movement 

 continues to spread and thrive the 

 Indian peasant can have no better friend, 

 for debt is the incubus which has hung 

 most heavily upon him, and he will be 

 another and happier man when, free 

 from this thraldom to the bannia, he can 

 secure his modest capital on reason- 

 able terms. — Indian A griculhirist, Vol, 

 XXXII, No, 12, Dec, 1907. 



THE CHRISTIANA PEOPLE'S CO- 

 OPERATIVE BANK, LIMITED. 

 By the Rev. Wm, T. Turner, Jamaica. 



The introduction of People's Banks 

 into Jamaica is due to J. T. Palache, 

 Agricultural Instructor for the parish of 

 Manchester, who wrote a series of 

 articles in one of the local newspapers 

 on the subject of Agricultural Loan 

 Banks, dealing specially with the 

 Raiffeisen system of rural loan banks, 

 which was started in Germany about 

 fifty-five years ago. He also outlined a 

 scheme for a loan bank which, in his 

 opinion, was suited to the conditions of 

 Jamaica. These articles a ttracted a good 

 deal of attention, and were afterwards 

 published in pamphlet form and cir- 

 culated in the island, chiefly in the 

 parish of Manchester, 



Mr. Palache followed up his articles by 

 expounding the syetem to the various 

 branches of the Jamaica Agricultural 

 Society in Manchester, and advocated 

 the adoption of these banks as an aid 

 to the peasant class of the population. 

 The history of the growth of this system 

 in Germany where it originated, in 

 other countries in Europe, in Britain, 



and more recently in Canada, may be 

 said to be very remarkable, when there 

 is taken into consideration its very small 

 beginning, and its slow progress at the 

 commencement. There are at present 

 some 28,000 of these banks in Europe 

 alone, although the third bank was not 

 established until twenty-three years 

 after the first one was opened. When 

 the opposition the system aroused in 

 some quarters, the very searching in- 

 quiries that were made by a Royal 

 Commission, and the rapid strides the 

 system made after the Commission had 

 reported, are taken into consideration, 

 the soundness of the principle on which 

 these banks are founded cannot be 

 questioned. The success of these banks, 

 in every country into which they have 

 been introduced, diverse as the condi- 

 tions pertaining in these countries are, 

 strenghtens the conviction that the 

 system is one that should succeed in 

 Jamaica, especially seeing, as Mr. 

 Palache has pointed out, that the cir- 

 cumstances and conditions of the pea- 

 santry of the island are just such as 

 these banks have been found most fitted 

 to help. The people are poor, their 

 wealth is in their labour and in the soil, 

 and they have hitherto been handi- 

 capped by the very high rate of interest 

 they have had to pay for the accommoda- 

 tion given them in the way of advances 

 on their crops, etc. It was but to be 

 expected that the system would be 

 spoken against by money lenders and 

 others. Some, too, even of those who 

 have to depend on the people for their 

 support, have said the system would 

 never do in Jamaica because the people 

 cannot be trusted. A spirit such as this 

 is not one calculated either to help the 

 people, or to develop the industries of a 

 country. To the writer, it seems that a 

 system such as this, to aid the people 

 in their finanaces, is a necessary corol- 

 lary to the efforts now being made by 

 Agricultural Instructors and others, at 

 no small cost of money, to teacn im- 

 proved methods of cultivation and to 

 improve the character of the stock in 

 the island. While Mr. Palache must 

 ever get the chief credit of introducing 

 the system of Loan Banks in Jamaica, 

 credit is also due to the Hon. W. 

 Favvcett, Director of Public Gardens and 

 Plantations, for the efforts he lias made 

 in different ways to recommend its 

 adoption in the island. As the result of 

 Mr. Palache's efforts, several of the 

 branches of the Agricultural Society in 

 the parish of Manchester took the matter 

 up and started banks, adopting the pro- 

 posed scheme in its entirety. Mr. 

 Palache prepared all the necessary books 

 and forms, the system obtained the sanc- 

 tion of the Government and was regis- 



