830 History of Scawby Credit Society. [jan., 



loans have been granted have been, for example, to enable 

 the borrower to buy cows, sheep, lambs, pigs, or seed, or 

 to hold over stock or corn for better prices. Loans are 

 generally made repayable at the time when the profits of 

 the transaction are likely to come in to the borrower and for 

 periods varying from 3 months up to 2 years, which is the 

 maximum period allowed by the Act. The longer term 

 loans are usually made repayable by instalments. In order 

 to secure the Society against loss, the Committee require 

 the borrower to give security approved by them for the 

 punctual repayment of the loan, generally in the form of 

 two sureties, who may or may not be members of the Society. 

 The Committee carefully watch the utilisation of the loan on 

 the object for which it was granted, and insist on punctual 

 repayment, though they give the borrower time on good cause 

 shown. On three occasions they have had to call on the 

 sureties to make good part of the loan, but the Society itself 

 has made no bad debts, and has incurred no loss. It is 

 believed that the sureties ultimately recovered the amounts 

 they had paid. No repayments of loans were overdue at 

 the end of 19 10. Several of the members say the existence 

 of the Society has enabled them to undertake profitable 

 transactions with sums borrowed from the Society, which 

 they could not have obtained elsewhere, and one family at 

 least has, by its own thrift and industry, and with the help 

 of successive loans from the Society, risen from the position 

 of day-labourers to that of substantial small farmers. 



One borrower repaid his loan three months before it was 

 due, cheerfully paying interest for the full term for which 

 it was borrowed, as he said that the loan had benefited him 

 greatly, and he wished in return to benefit the Society. 

 Another man, who had borrowed to enable him to hold 

 over his fat pig for a better price, also repaid his loan before 

 it was due, with interest in full, saying he considered the 

 transaction had left him ten shillings to the good. 



Seeing that the whole work of the Society is done for 

 nothing, the expenses of management, which consist chiefly 

 of cost of stationery and affiliation fees to the Agricultural 

 Organisation Society, have been small. In 1910 they 

 amounted only to 125. for the year. And, seeing that for 



