Nelson Evening Mail. THURSDAY, FEBRAURY 13, 1908. BRITISH POLITICS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 13 February 1908, Page 2

Nelson Evening Mail. THURSDAY, FEBRAURY 13, 1908. BRITISH POLITICS.

"EIDNG FOB A FALL."

/A CABLEGBAM. received this week indicates" that the Liberal majority in the House of Commons are determined to push through the Scottish Small Holdings Bill, and with that end in view to introduce some new "guillotine" methods of proceduro whereby the closure may be applied with even greater effectiveness than the forms of the House permit at present. In other words, the spikes of the Parliamentary "poire d'angoisse," or gag, are about to be better oiled, and the weapon invented by the Conservatives and captured by the Liberals is to be turned against the minority. The Government is staking its existence on the Scottish Small Holdings Bill, as it pretended to do on the education issue. The la*ter has not exactly been shelved; but there has been a compromise somewhat ignominious after the threats to "nail the colours to the mast and die fighting" made by Imperial 'tatcsmen after the manner of our owii McNab. Now, apparently in order to .placate the Noneomformist Liberals who resent the compromise on the Education Bill, and to force the party to hold together against the House of Lords, the Scottish Small Holdings Bill is resurreoted and made a vital issue. • • • • • The English Small Holdings and Allotment Act came into force at the beginning of this year. It is a measure providing for the acquirement of the freehold by a large number of tenants^at^ill, and by the landless generally. ' A small holding is defined as an area not exceeding 60 scores, and an allotment as an area not_ exceeding five acres. By it various lSfmall Holdings . Commissioners 'may : be appointed by the (BoaTd of Agriculture to ascertain the extent of land available for sub-division in the counties, and submit a scheme of distribution. Land may be taken up individually or by co-operative bodies, and there is provision for compulsory State resumption as under our own Closer Settlement Act. But at present matters are inchoate, and there is not likely to be much sub-division under the measure for a few years outside common and waste lands. • • • • •

The Scottish Small Holdings Bill, on the other hand, has had more vicisBitudeß than its English congener, and the fighting over it, begun last session, is to be continued. Tbe measure came to grief in the House of Lords, and it was withdrawn by the Government with a threat of early introduction this session. That threat appears to have been kept, and to facilitate' parage through the House of Commons the new closure rules are being introduced for adoption among the standing orders. The BUI applies the Crofters' Acts throughout Scotland, constitutes a Land Commission of not more than five members in _ the place of the Crofters ' Commission, and appoints three Agricultural Commissioners. One of the Commissioners is to be called the Commissioner of Small Holdings. This officer will ascertain the demand for small halding' and endeavour to secure the needed areas by negotiations

With landlords. Failing , success in such negotiations the Commissioners may apply to tho Land Court, which may issue an order for the formation of small holdings and the fixing of fair rent. The exemptions of land from the operation or' the Act are areas of fahn lands ndi Exceeding 150 acres lit a single holding. Tho | owner or lessee of land, the letting value of which would suffer by small holdings sub-divided from its freehold or leasehold, may claim compensation.

Tenants or crofters whose lands are not more than fifty acres in extent, or whose rent does not exceed £50 a year oome under the extonsion of the Crofters' Act; but new holders must satisfy the Commissioners that they can fulfil the obigations incumbent on thorn. The Land Court must have as one of its members a Scottish barrister of experience, and one member of the Court must be able to speak Gaelic. Members of the Court are romovablo for misconduct or inability; but not if either. House of Parliament object by resolution. The Agricultural Commisioners, who are to hold office during His Majesty's pleasure, have transferred to them the powers now exercised in S'eotland by the Board of Aarriculture. The Commissioners -will have at their disposal £15,000 a year, and any sum not exceeding £85,000 a year voted for certain Scottish purposes.- Of the latter sum £35,000 will be devoted to work in the congested dist'ri'Ctß, and the balance to a Scottish Land Fund, for facilitating the constitution, of new holdings. When a new holding is constituted by agreement between landlord and holder the rent will not be alterable for seven years. The

Commissioners may give assistance towards draining, roading, etc., and towards the adaptation or erection of buildings. Any existing tenant disturbed by the constitution of new holdings may be compensated. Except by agreement, land subject to n lease in existence at Whitsun, 1906, cannot be cut up for for small holdings, and land tbat is not agricultural or pastoral, or land now forming parks or gardens or policies or acquired for a public purpose, is outside the scope of the new Bill. Landlords are safeguarded by a system of double inquiry. Before the Commissioners can report to tho Land Court in favour of tho compulsory constitution of small holdings all parties must be heard, and the Land Court, before it issues its order, must also near all parties. The Commissioners must give reasonable consideration to objections stated by a landlord to any applicant for a new holding, and, other things being equal, prelerenco must be given to an applicant preferred by a. landlord.

When tho Bill was before the House of Lords last session on tho second reading Lord Balfour moved its rejection on the ground that thero was no justification for the establishment in Scotland of a Land Court on the Irish model. He also contended thftt nn attempt was oeing made W introduce into the agricultural districts of Scotland "the evil inseparable from any system ot divided ownership in land." Later on it was proposed to po~tpone tho consideration nf the Bill till the English Bill had been considered by the Hou>.e of Lords; but the Government would not consent, and on the rejection of the second ieadin<j by the Lords the measure was withdrawn with the threat of rointroauction. In October last the Premier, speaking to the House, said the Government "would not be deterred by the bogey of dual ownership from grappling with tho evils of singlo ownership; but the truth was that the clue to the temper in which the Lords approached this matter of agranau reform was to be found in kord Lansdowne's words: — 'Surely what gives reality to ownership, what makes it a valuable and precious thing to many people, is that we have hitherto a ociated with it tho power of gmd.ng destinies of the estato. superintending its development and improvement, and, above all things the right of selecting the persons to be associated with tho proprietors in tbe cultivation of the soil ' " The Prime Minister argued that the plain English of this was that, notwithstanding all the changes in the political and social habits of the peoplo of the United Kingdom, Lord Lansdowno and his great party in the House of Lords and Mr-3alfour and his smaller party in the House of Commons were still, on the side of the old patriarchal relationship of landlord and tenant He asked, if it were tho power over the fortunes of human beings that gave reality and attractiveness to the ownership of land, whether the Government was not justified— a thousand times justified— in striving for a more wholesome, honest, and rational system whereby men might keep their independence without forleiting Mioir homes? n, * « * < B The bill, as promised or threatened has boon reintroduced this session and means havo boen takeu by tho new closure to secure its rapid and gagged passage throueh the House of Commons. Thereafter its fate will be put to the touch in the House ?« tZ^'T? V n this c °"°ction one is inclined to hazard tho view that bir Henry Campbell Bannerman is ''ndingforafall." With an early dissolution on the pretext of House of Lords reform the Liberals may bo able to stem the "rot" that has set m among their ranks, as indicated by the defeats at the by-elec-tions and internal dissensions, not only among the Liberal party, as disclosed in the split over the Education Bill but also m the Cabinet itself as disclosed in the open disagreement between the Admiralty and the Chant.l °t tho Exch equer with regard * m S?w$F C3t »™tes. The Scottish Small Holdings Bill may be as good an excuse as another for a dissolution; out the real issue tho Government desires to make vital i, House of Lords reform— a catchy cry sure to win votes, even against the reaction in favour, of tho Conservatives recently shown by the municipal elections and the Parliamentary by-elec-tions.