40 



Agricultural Credit Banks. 



Capital Account. 



Statement of Liabilities and Assets on December 31st, 1901. 



„ . £ s, d. I £ s . d. 



Deposits ' - - - 162 o o f Loans outstanding - - 130 o o 



Balance in favour of the Interest due on Loans - -1x6 



Society- - - - is 12 4 



9 



Cash at Bank - 5107 

 „ in G.P.O., with 



Interest 40 5 o 



45 15 7 



£i77 12 4 i £i77 12 4 



The number of members last year was 30, and the loans 

 granted were from £4. 10s. to ^40, the interest charged being 

 6 per cent. 



The Castle Morton Agricultural Credit Society (Worcester- 

 shire) has for many years proved a useful help to the small 

 holders and labourers of the locality. It has often enabled 

 its members to keep their sheep for a more favourable 

 market, and to purchase pigs and manure when they could 

 not otherwise have done so. 



The loans granted for these and other purposes have been 

 from £2 to £10, and instalments have been repaid punc- 

 tually. 



Mention might be made of another serviceable little society 

 of this character at Laxfield, Suffolk, and also of one only 

 recently formed at Freeby, near Melton Mowbray, Leicester- 

 shire. 



The operations of these half-dozen English village banks 

 conclusively prove the practicability of this form of self-help 

 in our rural districts. Their benefits are more than those 

 represented by the financial profits which they enable their 

 members to make. They cultivate that friendly social 

 spirit, as much needed in our villages as elsewhere, and 

 bring together for their mutual encouragement men who 

 would alone frequently fail to make a successful struggle. 

 Further than this, they educate the people in those business 

 and administrative habits so necessary for the management of 

 their own affairs, and prove in a very practical way the value 

 of honest industry, punctuality, and attention to detail. 



When those of us who are inclined to be discouraged at 

 the slow progress of the movement in England remember 

 that it took 26 years befoie the German Agricultural Loan 



