Land Banks.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 27 June 1910, Page 4

Land Banks.

HOW THEY IfAVl'] SUC'CIOICDIOI) AIHJOAI) AND IN IRKLAND. fn his adniir.able pami>hlet on "The Land lor the IVoi>le," Sir Gilbert Marker shows how much hene-lit has ibeen derived from tlie crcid'iib banks conducted upon the Raffoisou imxlol. There are 10.000 such banks in Germany alone, and their annual turnover amounts to £2,000.000. In Moiimania, within, eighteen months after the .scheme Avas started, (512 'banks were established, «n<l in fourteen months ithe membership iuymiserl from 20,004 to 09,8 11. Through Mie banks in Denmark u labouring man, properly eommen'dod and guaranteed by his fellowlabourers, may borrow nine-tenths of the purchase rnonoy of m holdiii" up to C 250 at the 'rate of 3 per cent, and there are 1."0.000 Damisli labourers who have a house and some liand of their own, lalthough the total population of Denmark is only fiboult one-eigliteenth of that of tho United Kingdom. France, Holland, Ttaly and othei countries might be quoted. Last year 310 persons were assisted by tho Agricultural Bank in Queensland, and no less than £'70,107 was advanced, of which ,C 29,701 was t>:; onalble the .settlers to carry out improvements, mid £10,000 was for paying off liabilities on land, stock, etc. Under the guid'anee of Sir Horace Plunkott corresponding advantages lrave been made available for the Trish peasant, and it is a remarkable faot ithnit cases of defult in payment of the instalments upon loans tiro almost unknown. But notwithstanding tho, overwhelming evidence in favour of this mrlthod of supplying cultivators wMi the necessary onpital to buy and i'(|iiip the lioldincs, and the professed desire of the Government to facilitate, 'access fb the land, the T'rime Minister has declined 'to rwpoiin't a Select Committee to study the working of land banks iiv fore-isrn noiiniries and. the polonies.—Pall Mall Gazette.