LAND CAMPAIGN

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 100, 24 October 1913, Page 7

LAND CAMPAIGN

MR. LLOYD GEORGE'S SPEECH VALUATION WORK • SMALL HOLDERS AND NOTICE TO QUIT. (By ■ Telegraph.— Press Association,— Copyright,) LONDON, 22nd October. The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr. Lloyd GeOrge), in his speech ut Swindon in continuation of his land campaign, said that the valuation of I the land would be completed by 1915, and the machinery for the valuations would be handed over to the Minister of Lands. "If," he said, "the small holder gets a notice to quit the Minister will send an official to enquire into the reason. If he is told that that small, holder Voted for a Radical candidate, or .went to the Methodist Church, he will say that that is not an adequate cause for the notice to quit." If a tenant was a bad farmer, it was right that he sholild be 1 dispossessed, in the interests of the community ; but otherwise he was entitled to compensation. In this way tenants .would get security of tenure., AFFORESTATION. There were eight million acres capable of afforestation. The., planting of trees WoUld bring exposed lands into cultivation. The mert of the highlands and f;lens had given Britain her refinements, lad arrested the career of Napoleon; bttt the men df the glens had been swept away: their crofts had been destroyed, and the whole place was now trodden by the deer. "The Government wants to repopulate the glens by reafforesting the hillsides, giving the men winter employment in the forests j in sUtnraev they could be cultivating the valleys. It is stupid to allow our tens of thousands of robUst workmen to go forth to the wilds of Canada, when there wan 60 much land at home. Our present conditions are bleeding the country) and the htemorrhage must be stOppbd. If the farmers are unable to pay the minimum wages, the Commission will fix abatements of the rents.' l COTTAGES NEEDED. Mi 1 . Lloyd George continued : "There is a deficiency of 120,000 cottages. The Government ie going to Use the insurance Reserve Funds in giving the agricultural labourers the first cut off that joint. The Commissioner will fix the price, thUs getting land at a fair price. Every house will have its vegetable gardenj Tile resources of the State are q^uite adequate to build country cottages for everyone. It i& to the interest of the cotlntry to induce everyone to live outside tllo towns." Such methods would secure a motherland in which her children Would rejoice, and of which the Empire, to the ends -of the earth, woUld be proUd. Mr. Lloyd George in the evening addressed a meeting bf four thousand. He said that his land programme was not unauthorised. He spoke on behalf of the Premier and of the whole of the Cabinet. His opponents were already foamiiig. "In a few weeks, '' he declared, "there" won't be enough straitwaistcoats in Etigland foi 1 thdm." CONSERVATIVE PRESS SARCASTIC. "GOLDEN AGE IN AGRICULTURE." LONDON, 23rd October. The Conservative papers sum Up Mr. Lloyd George's policy as the inauguration of a golden age in agriculture by tho creation of a new horde of officials an appeal to cupidity and class envy. DIGGING, A OAfeDEN WHILE A HOUSE IS BURNING. MR. LLOYD GEORGE " MUST BE BEMUSED." (Tithes— Sydiiey Suri Special Cables.) (Received Octtiber 24, 8.30 a.m.) LONDON, 23rd October. The Times, in a leader on Mr. Lloyd George's land speech, Sayß that Mr. Lloyd George resembled a riian continuing to dig his . garden while his hodse is bursting into flames. It adds : "While Ireland steadily draw's riearer to civil war, any Minister deliberately concentrating his attention on rural questions must be bemused."