The Southern Cross PUBLISHED WEEKLY. Invercargill, Saturday, Mat 30. The Southland Building Society.

Southern Cross, Volume 4, Issue 9, 30 May 1896, Page 8

The Southern Cross PUBLISHED WEEKLY. Invercargill, Saturday, Mat 30. The Southland Building Society.

The annual meeting of the shareholders of this institution is an event of considerable local importance, and the meeting held last week was no exception to the rule. The uniform success of this society over a long course of years fully justifies the pride with which its shareholders and the public at large regard it. Successfully managed institutions of this class having large interests at stake, have been the exception, and not the rule ; and while every credit must be given to those who, from time to time, have been entrusted with its management, it must be evident to all that the interest taken by the whole body of the shareholders in its working, as shown by the proceedings of the annual meetings, has been a powerful factor in the Society’s success. The twenty-seventh annual report and accompanying balance - sheet, which was on this occasion submitted for the approval of the shareholders, must be regarded as fairly satisfactory, seeing that the profit made has been sufficient to allow of a dividend of 6| per cent, being declared. For all practical purposes it may be said that the business of the Society shows no increase upon last year, the sum lent being £11,248 10s, as against £11,067 12s in the previous year. However, as the rate of interest to borrowing members, from the first subscription day in January last, was reduced from eight per cent, to seven per cent., an increased business may be anticipated in the future. The money owing by the Society on debentures at the present time is £18,096, and the rate of in terest allowed on such moneys is two per cent, at call, three per cent, for six months, and tour per cent, for twelve months. At these rates it is stated the (Society can obtain all the money it requires. In 1892 the properties which had fallen in amounted to nearly £II,OOO. ISTow the value of the properties on hand is under £2OOO. In realising a loss has been made of nearly £SOO, £440 of which has been provided out of reserve, so it will be seen that, all things considered, the Society has come through the troubled times with slight loss. The fact that the Society has, during the period of its existence, distributed, in the shape of profits, a sum of over £BO,OOO, is a sufficient proof of this. The advances on mortgages

stand pretty much the same as last year, viz., £58,000 against £59,000 The last item in the balance-sheet (£945, the cost of the Society’s new building and furnishings) betokens a new departure. The Society is to be congratulated upon haying, in this instance, taken a step in the right direction. The decision of the shareholders in rejecting certain proposals laid before them re insurance business, was a good one. The business of the Society proper is quite enough to have on hand, and it was wise to let well alone.

As regards the future, it will be. seen that during the past few years the business of the Society has been practically at a standstill, and we think there is little hope of a change during the coming year. Fixed loans at low rates can now be obtained both for large and small sums, and outside of this we have three Grovernment departments offering to lend money on exceptionally |easy terms ; and further, the Society is threatened with opposition in its own line in the shape of a Terminable Building Society. Under these circumstances it is hardly likely that the business will increase by leaps and bounds. Building Society borrowers are, for the most part, an exceptional class—• mostly wage-earners with something to snare, who, in times past, were sufficiently numerous to give ,a building society increasing business. Wage-earners we have now, it is true, in increased numbers, but mostly with nothing to spare, consequently the allurements of a fixed loan at low rates, never to be repaid but to be turned over to someone else, are too great to be resisted ; and until there is an improvement in the condition of the wage-earning class there is not likely to be a boom in building societies.