Terminating Building Society.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume II, Issue 7, 13 June 1899, Page 4

Terminating Building Society.

CONTRIBUTED. A house to live in must be either built, pui chased, or rented. To build or purchase requires capital. A house ot one's own however, is the most satisfactoiy. If the owner builds he can suit himself. It he purchases ho can alter <o huifc and know that he is miproMiig his own pioperty. If he rents he iims.l take it as it is. The money paid in rent is gone never to return and the property is still the landlord's. 'Suppose three persons, A, B and C, in this position. Each wants a house of his own but neither has enough money to purchase or build. The money required to be raised is JSISO. Each can contribute say £50 to make up the desired sum. They can do this and each can have the use of the j£lso. Suppose A gets it first ; he has to p.ty it bncli in a stated time. When repaid B gets it for the same time. I lien C gets it; thus each will have the same us« of the money of the other two as tb^ have of hi'o. It is necess.u y. of coiuse, to decide the older m which each shall get the use of the money. This they do by di awing lots, or oue can get the puority by paying tor it. Tins is the foundation puueiple of the system of Terminating Building Societies. Members contribute a general fund at the rate ot one shilling per week per share by fortnightly payments. When sufficient money is m hand, appropriations are made oi JSISO to be lent out to members. -Two amounts of £150 each are balloted tor. The next two amounts of J£l£>o each aie offered for sale, the premiums going into the funds of the society. The member to whom the loan is made must find security, either freehold or leasehold. If he desires to puichaso a

house, he can asceitain from the society what value it would put on it as a security, and how much could be lent ou ifc. If he cannot get the whole .£l5O lent on it, he can take apart, anil forego the rest or he can ask the society to invest the money for him till he gots sufficient security, or he may forego the claim to the appropriation it got by ballot, and have a prior right to one at a later date. Or he nifty sell his right to another member but no further appropriation will be made in respect to the share which has drawn the appropriation. If he desires to build a house, arrangements can be made for the society making progress paymeuts as the building goes up, the member giving security over the property. The member getting a loan must iui' mediately begin repaying it iv weekly sums ot 5s payable fortnightly. These payments continue till the sum is repaid. The Is a week payments also continue, but the member guts, credit tor them as against the last ultimate payments of his loan. When an appropnation has been made ior eveiy share the society tei inmates. The Is a week subscriptions cease. The piofits accumulated are divided among the members, and the moneys lent out are repaid to members by quarterly dividends^as fast as they are paid back to the society by the bonoweis. Tho working expenses ot the society do B3t> come out of these funds. They nrj met by an eutranc fee of Is per share, and a contribution of 2s per year per share, and each member pays Is for copy of rules and pass book. Such is a rough outline of the main features of the sociey. It will be seen that the benefits to the members are mutual. By a system of co operation members are enabled to get loans, without paying interest. Instead of paying intei est each member baa to give the society the use of the money he pays in for n certain time without receiving interest. He therefore gets the use of the money at what it is actually worth. If he chooses he may pay the society to get an advance before his turn, but?" that goes into the funds of the society and forms part of the profits divisible among the members in which he himself will participate, If he chooses topurchase the right of another member who has drawn an appiopriation, he may do so on whatever terms such member is willing to sell it on, but; that is a matter of mutual arrangement between the two. The benefits deiivable from such a society must be apparent. The members are enabledto get money at what may be termed prime cost, cost, and have the convenience of payit off m small sums, which an ordinary money lender would not care to be tioubied with. Thrift is promoted. Members are brought to realise thevalue of small sa-\ ings. Many odd ' shillings which otherwise would be spent unprofitably will be paid into the society and form a fund for per- < manent benefit to the members, instead of floating about and drifting away from them. The society should be a valuable object lesson to young men especially. There are many of them who could well spare the small weekly coutuoution inquired, who now spend as much without any real benefit to themselves. If they pais. info the society the small sums they otherwise spend on unnecessary luxuries, they would some day find themselves in possession ef a sum of money wh<ch would be of some use to them, and enable them to pvo\ide homes for themselves. A shaie in the society will enable a member to get a home for himself by paymeuts which he would otherwise have to make for rent. Kot only will members benefit, but the town as a whole will. Men who would otherwise be renting old and unsightly homes will be building. new and neat ones. The town will be improved. Tho building trade will be stimulated and money will circulate beneficially. Numbers of soc.ie.tieo established on those principles have been established m other plaGes. an<^ everywhere they are considered a signal success.