ENGLISH LAND FOR SETTLEMENTS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 25, 30 January 1908, Page 6

ENGLISH LAND FOR SETTLEMENTS.

- . ¦» England was a good deal more fortunate than either Scotland or Ireland in the matter of land reform last session. Though Lord Lansdowne considers the House of Lords to be "peculiarly qualified to deal with matters connected with agriculture," it cannot be said that zeal in the cause of land reform is one of their Lordships' peculiar qualifications. It is therefore not surprising that of the three Land Bills which were introduced by the Government last year, two were destr6yed by the Lords, and the third had a narrow escape. Ireland lost its Evicted Tenants Bill, and Scotland its Small Landholders Bill, but the English Small Holdings and Allotments Bill, though roughly handled, maaaged to fight its way to the statute-book. It is matter for congratulation that even one out of the three escaped the reforming zeal of the House of Lords, and that it incorporates a principle of great importance which may before long receive a very much wider extension. By the Small Holdings Act of 1892 the County Councils were given power to acquire land and erect buildings, and to either sell or let. But the English County Councils are not tho most goahead bodies in the world, and for this and other reasons the measure has disappointed the expectations of its friends. Three important changes are effected by the new Act, which it is hoped may overcome the chief defects of the original scheme. Commissioners are appointed to act in conjunction with the County Councils in the administration of the Act, and if necessary to act independently of them, under the direction of the Board of Agriculture. Land may be taken compul6orily ; and when taken it may be leU in small areas to private persons or associations, but not sold. Realising that these provisions embody the most drastic principles of our own land policy, one wonders that they were ever sanctioned by an assembly of landlords. Small as the Bill was, they m-ade twenty-eight amendments in it; and of these Mr. L. Harcourt, who had chax*ge of the Bill in the House of Commons, candidly saidi that some wore "nonsensical or mischievous or both," and others were "wrecking in intention and destructive in effect." All the principles which we have enumerated were attacked by the Lords' amendments}, but the Government succeeded in saving them all. Appropriately enough, the first announcement of the working of the Act comes from one of the most Radical of peeis, and a landlord vrho has already done a good deal to forward the movement by voluntary arrangement on his own estate. "In threo weeks," says Lord Carrington, as reported yesterday, "tliTee- thousand persons have applied for eighty-three square miles under the Small" Holdings Act." This is a. magnificent start for the new venture, and a conclusive answer to the carpers who have contended that though an artificial supply might be created by statute, there would be no demand to meet it. The private experiments which have been promoted by Lord Carrington, on one side of politics, and Lord Onalow, on the other, should , have sufficed to eilence such, criticism ;

and it surely cannot survive three thousand, applications for eighty-three square miles of country which have coma in within three weeks after the authorities have been ready to receive them. Tha result is full of encouragement both for the present scheme and for tho cause of fand reform In Great Britain generally." "Back to the land" is the message which spells salvation both for town and country, and here is a small but Idghly promising beginning under the direct control of the State. "Wherever small holding's exist," says Mr. Rider Haggard, "there is prosperity, great love of tha soil, a desire to cultivate it, an increasing population, and a considerable addition to the supply of local labour." The blight that, is upon rural England may at last be dispelled if the system can be spread far enough, and the success of the Small Holdings Act may lead in due course to a Land for Settlements Bill sufficiently backed to command the acquiescence, if not the approval, of the hereditary Chamber.