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need of house accommodation were really in earnest. The same writer urged that a meeting should be called, whereby each man might have an opportunity of making known his requirements. At length, in the month of June last, a notice was circulated that a meeting would take place to consider the question. That and later meetings were held, in which the question was discussed in its several phases, the result of which was the establishing of the Hastings and St. Leonards Co-operative Building Company.
- Absolute necessity has called this company into being; it can barely be called an innovation; and its success, if properly managed, is all but assured. It does not profess antagonism to other Building Societies of the locality, which have, doubtless, conferred benefits upon the class for which they were chiefly intended; but it aims at doing for the mechanic, the artizan and the labourer what the pre-existing societies have done for the trading and professional communities. The prospectus sets forth as its primary object, “the building of cottages, so as to obviate the evils of overcrowded dwellings”. This, of itself ought to be sufficient to recommend the scheme to the public, seeing that the overcrowded state of the dwellings in our back streets and alleys is a cancer that feeds on the very vitals of society. But it has also another aim – namely, “to elevate the working classes of these towns by encouraging them to invest a part of their earnings”.
- Now, to place before the working classes and those of small income the inducements of frugality, and to teach them to lay by ever so small a portion of their earnings, is to make them less dependent on others and less likely to become the inmates of a poor-house or a prison. But, perhaps, the most important of the objects professedly aimed at is that which is contained in the third clause – namely, “to enable the occupier of one of the Company’s cottages to become the owner of his dwelling by paying a reasonable rent for a period of about fourteen years”. The manner in which this is proposed to be done appeared to us, at first sight, somewhat singular, and we must confess to having had some slight misgiving of its practicability; but on perusing the rules, we came to the conclusion that the company would be in a position to carry out its objects to the fullest extent. The scale of rents adopted would of themselves be low enough, without the redemption, but with it they become doubly advantageous. It is evident that large dividends are not sought to be obtained, and that a low rental is the chief feature in the calculation.
- Among the Bye-laws there is one which commends itself in an especial manner to shareholders whose precarious incomes might sometimes disenable them sometimes to meet even the small weekly payments required of them. The provision is that a shareholder’s weekly payments, may, under certain conditions, be suspended for a limited period without jeopardising his claim or subjecting him to obnoxious fines. Altogether, it appears to us that the rules are liberally as well as equitably framed, one instance of -
