The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1912. THE BUILDING SOCIETY.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 21, 17 September 1912, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1912. THE BUILDING SOCIETY.

As many of our readers will iiav’G noted i( y fbe well-compiled .and interesting leaflet circulated with out issue of Saturday last, the Stratford Building Society has for its main object the lending of money on approved freehold and leasehold securities free of interest. During the twelve years the Society has been in existence it has lent to its members, all in small sums, no less than £20,000, absolutely free of interest. The First Group of the Society is now drawing to a close, .after having satisfactorily fulfilled the duties for which it was established, and a new Group, on the basis of £2OO for each share taken up, is being formed. The Society has earned an excellent reputation as a reliable and safeguarding institution, and appeals to all classes. In the leaflet, for the benefit of those who may be ignorant of the working of Building Societies, a brief outline of the system is given as follows; “In the first place a share issue of about 600 shares must be obtained. Shareholders contribute subscriptions to the capital of the Society at the rate of 2s 6d per share per fortnight. When these subscriptions reach the sum of £2OO a ballot is taken and the successful member obtains that sum as a loan, on security, free of interest. Should he hold more than one share ho is entitled, .as a right, to a further loan of £2OO, immediately, without either ballot or purchase. . . The next amount of £2OO to be disposed of is not balloted for, but is sold to members by tender, the highest tender likewise getting it free of interest, with the right, should he have more than one share, of having a further £2OO granted him forthwith. Each share a member takes up carries with it the right to £2OO of loan. Succeeding loans .are alternately sold and balloted for. . . . Thus, for the poison with a speculative turn of mind, or for one who has not immediate necessity for the money, there is the ballot, whilst the member in immediate necessity may obtain the loan by purchase. All loans are repayable at the rate of 12s 6d per fortnight, free of interest. . . Xo better method of borrowing has ever been designed than the schemes operated by Societies like this. It appeals to all classes. To those who wish to erect a home of their own, and save rent. To those who wish to improve their farms. To those who wish to pay off oppressive mortgages, or those who merely wish to borrow lor trading or speculative purposes.” An

attractive scheme surely, and one that has the merit of having proved it sell. In addition to what has been set out above, it may be well to note that under the rules of the Society a shareholder may, at any time, withdraw the amount of capital that he has paid in by way of contributions, il he should so desire. Consequently, apart Irom

its great advantages to those desiring to borrow, the Society also perforins the functions of a Savings Bank. With regard to appropriations offered for sale, there may ho at first sight, some doubt as to how the buyer who tenders for such loan fares. As an illustration we will suppose that a member, not content to wait for Ids free loan by ballot, decides to purchase at a premium of £2O. This figure is considerably above the ruling average in the past, but even so, when it is remembered that the loan has a currency of twelve years free of interest, the £2O premium for a £2OO loan works out at something less than one per cent, per

annum. In explanation of the treatment of subscriptions, when paid in they are placed to the credit of the shareholder paying them in at the rate or 2s 6d per share per fortnight, and the accrued profits of the Society are credited equally to shareholders bv way of interest on these subscriptions. For example, the subscriptions paid up on each share in the existing group of the Stratford Building Society

amounted, on the 28th of February, 1912 to £33 18s, whilst the accrued profits attached to such share amounted, at the same date to £9 9s. Iho members’ subscriptions, together with accrued profits, are, when every shareholder has obtained his appropriation either (a) paid to him in cash; or (It) if he has not yet repaid his loan, credited to his loan account.

GERMANY’S NEWEST COLONY

The German Colonial Office recently is-} sued a memorandum dealing with the j German acquisitions in the French Con- j go, which gives a dreary picture of | Germany’s newest Colony. The an-; thor, Dr. Karl Ritter, states that j rubber is abundant in many districts, and that in many cases the natural | supplies are still untouched. On the j other hand, great climatic and sani-; tary difficulties have to be overcome. I Sleeping sickness, and small-pox work I havoc among the natives, the former being terribly prevalent in the eastern i and northern parts of the colony, and I the valleys of the rivers, especially those of the Sanga and the Lbaugi, are full of it. The Sanga enclave, the southernmost of the two feelers stretching to the Congo, is impossible as a place of residence for whites. A stay of a few months is described as murderous. The mosquito plague is worse than anywhere in Africa, while the moisture-soaked .air is almost intolerable. Moreover, the middle and upper course of the Sanga seems to offer the best conditions of life for the Glossina palpalis, and the falsity of the old theory of the immunity of whites from sleeping sickness is further demonstrated by the number of Europeans infected by the disease. The writer declares that it is an open secret that some thirty are being treated at the present time in the, Pasteur Institute. The. report shpwjs. that the conditions in the north are more favourable. Owing to the unsuitability of the natives for work the importation of labour from India and China is suggested, but in view of the obstacles in the way of such a step, Dr. Ritter prefers to rely on the gradual education of the native.