736 Agricultural Co-operative Credit Societies, [dec, 



AGRICULTURAL CO-OPERATIVE CREDIT 

 SOCIETIES IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 



This article deals only with Co-operative Societies which 

 concern themselves solely with the provision of loans of 

 money to small agriculturists, and takes no account either of 

 societies which make loans to dwellers in towns or of societies 

 which may add the business of making advances to members 

 to their main object of agricultural production, distribution, 

 or supply. 



It is possible to form an Agricultural Co-operative Credit 

 Society under the Industrial and Provident Societies Act, 

 with shares and share-capital and limited liability, but, as 

 a matter of fact, all the societies of this character now in 

 existence in England and Wales have been registered under 

 the Friendly Societies Act, 1896, and the Special Authority 

 granted by the Treasury in accordance with Section 8 (5) 

 of the Act. A society registered under that Authority must 

 have for its object the creation of funds by monthly or 

 other subscriptions, to be lent out to, or invested for, the 

 members of the society, or for their benefit, and must have 

 in its rules provisions that no part of its funds shall be 

 divided by way of profit, bonus, dividend, or otherwise, 

 among its members, and that all money lent to members 

 shall be applied to such purpose as the society or its com- 

 mittee of management may approve. 



There is nothing in the Friendly Societies Act to prevent 

 the registration of a society in which the liability of the 

 members for the debts of the society is limited to a fixed 

 sum in each case (or limited by guarantee, as it is called) ; 

 but no society has yet been formed on this basis, and all the 

 existing societies have adopted a rule to the following 

 effect : — 



" Every member of the Society shall be, equally with every 

 other member, jointly and severally liable for all debts in- 

 curred by the Society, and for any loan which a member 

 or his sureties may fail to pay." 



