when he has a child to marry or a parent to bury or a Brahman to entertain.  Indebtedness is the great curse of Indian agriculture, and the peasant’s chief necessity is cheap credit obtained on a system that will not cause him to sink deeper into the mire.  Here again it is not Indian politicians, but the British rulers of India who have found a solution, and it is of such importance and promise that it deserves more than mere passing mention.

It has been found in the adaptation to Indian requirements of the well-known Raffeisen system.  Sir William Wedderburn was, I believe, actually the earliest advocate of this movement, but the first practical experiments were made in Madras as a result of exhaustive investigation by Sir Frederick Nicholson and in the United Provinces when Sir Antony (now Lord) MacDonnell was Lieutenant-Governor, and one of the many measures passed by Lord Curzon for the benefit of the humbler classes in India, with little or no support from the politicians and often in despite of their vehement opposition, whilst Nationalist newspapers jeered at “a scheme for extracting money from wealthy natives in order that Government might make a show of benevolence at other people’s expense,” was an Act giving legal sanction to the operations of a system of co-operative banks and credit societies.  It found a healthy basis ready made in the Indian village system, and though it would never have succeeded without the informing energy and integrity of “sun-dried bureaucrats” and the countenance given to it by Government, it has had the cordial support of many capable native gentlemen.  It is now only eight years old, but it has begun to spread with amazing rapidity.  The report of the Calcutta Conference of Registrars last winter showed that the number of societies of all kinds had risen from 1,357 in the preceding year to 2,008, and their aggregate working capital from 44 lakhs to nearly 81 (one lakh or Rs.100,000=L6,666).  The new movement is, of course, still only in its infancy, but it is full of promise.  The moneylender, who was at first bitterly hostile, is beginning to realize that by providing capital for the co-operative banks he can get, on the whole, an adequate return with much better security for his money than in the old days of great gains and, also, great losses.  One of the healthiest features is that, notwithstanding the great expansion of the system, during the last twelve months, the additional working capital required was mainly provided by private individuals and only a very small amount by Government.  Another hopeful feature is that the money saved to the peasant by the lower interest he has to pay on his debts pending repayment is now going into modern machinery and improved methods of agriculture.  The new system appeals most strongly to poor and heavily indebted villages, and in the Punjab, where the results are really remarkable, especially in some of the backward Mahomedan districts, it is hoped, that within a few years nearly half the peasant indebtedness, estimated at 25 to 30 millions sterling, will have been wiped off.