NOT UNDERSTOOD

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 794, 15 October 1929, Page 9

NOT UNDERSTOOD

BUILDING SOCIETY SYSTEM “TRUANCY A MUG’S GAME” “Building societies are not propertly understood.” -said Mr. A. K. Know les, secretary and manager of the Northern Building Society, in addressing the Karangahape Hoad Business Promotion Society at its luncheon meeting today. Tracing the birth of building societies he said they had their origin in England, where a group of men met in Clieapsido each month and paid sums of hal fa guinea into the hands of a treasurer. For these shares or subscriptions, a fund for house-building was formed. “At that time a house could be built for £70,” observed the speaker. Today the total assets of the building societies in Great Britain amounted to £200,000,000, while the total assets of New* Zealand societies was £6,500,000. Referring to the working of the societies Mr. Knowles stressed the difference between permanent and terminating concerns. In the case of the latter, the organisation was a truly co-operative one and the society terminated after a certain fixed happening had taken place. The permanent societies separated borrowers from investors and were not divided into groups. Some wore adopting tho principle of non-withdrawable shares, which placed them almost in the category of conceriiings operating under the Companies Act.