Miscellaneous, 



330 



[Oct. 1906. 



and speedy recovery of interest from debtors, and even there we have a precedent in 

 the summary methods employed for recovering grain taxes before they were 

 abolished. As in the case of the German Landschaf ten and the Credit Foncier de 

 France, special privileges should be granted to the land banks, enabliug them, for 

 instance, to recover all dues as first charge on the property of the debtor. The 

 provisions necessary to protect the land banks and to establish public confidence in 

 their stability are mere matters of detail which may be embodied in an Ordinance. 



In connection with the land banks, and as an auxilliary to them, it will be 

 easy enough to establish, and there ought to be established, co-operative credit 

 societies in each large village as those founded in India. The Government of India 

 has enacted a special law in Act X of 1904, to facilitate the formation of such socie- 

 ties, and the Ceylon Government may follow in the wake of its big neighbour by 

 introducing similar legislation. Those societies will help the small village farmers, 

 artisans and labourers. Thus with a central bank in Colombo, and branches in each 

 province under the control and supervision of the Government, and with village 

 co-operative credit societies the organisation of credit in Ceylon will be complete, 

 and then there will be no reason why agriculture in Ceylon should not make as 

 rapid progress and on modern scientific lines as it has done in F.urope and America. 

 Without such a comprehensive system of land banks and co-operative credit 

 societies including the entire organisation of credit, the mere foundation of petty 

 co-operative credit societies alone will be impracticable, and can never effectually 

 advance the progress of agriculture in Ceylon. 



Finally, the present, it is submitted, is the most opportune time for laying 

 the foundation of a central land bank in Colombo, with branches in other 

 important centres. The Ceylon Agricultural Society has opened the eyes of the 

 people to the great advantages offered by agriculture in Ceylon on scientific lines, 

 and has given a strong impetus to the cultivation of new products. Even villagers 

 who had hitherto moved in ancient groves are awakening to a new life. An ever 

 increasing number of educated youth of the country are looking out for fresh fields 

 in which their energies might profitably be employed. And not the least important 

 factor to be reckoned in this matter is that in the natural course of events, His 

 Excellency the Governor may give up the reins of Government and retire, and his 

 successor may not have the same enthusiasm for agricultnre. The Agricultural 

 Society may then slacken its efforts, perhaps become purely academic in its 

 proceedings, and finally go the way of many a similar association in the past. 

 Native agriculture may then relapse into its usual condition of torpor. To avoid 

 such a calamity, to enable agriculture in Ceylon to stand on a basis as firm and 

 unshakable as the pyramids, it is to be hoped that His Excellency the Governor who 

 has signalised his administration by founding the Ceylon Agricultural Society, 

 will complete the good work he has begun by inaugurating a system of agricultural 

 banks which the Colony stands in urgent need of. 



CO-OPERATIVE CREDIT IN THE UNITED PROVINCES. INDIA. 



In the accumulation of practical experience of co-operative village banking, 

 the United Provinces have been peculiarly fortunate. Numerous co-operative banks 

 of this type were founded in 1901, as an immediate result to Mr. Dupernex's labours, 

 and the record of their success or failure has proved of the greatest advantage at the 

 present time, when work has been commenced on broader and more methodical 

 lines. 



The village banks were constituted on the Raiffeisen model slightly 

 modified, and were governed by a committee punchayat), which was assisted in the 



