SMALL HOLDINGS BILL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13451, 30 May 1907, Page 5

SMALL HOLDINGS BILL.

COMPULSORY PURCHASE t . y . . , CLAUSE. By Telegraph Association.—Copyrighv London, May 28. In the House of Commons yesterday the First Commissioner of Works (Mr. Vernon Harcourt) introduced a Bill to extend, cheapen, and accelerate the machinery for providing small holdings and allotments in England and Wales. The county councils are empowered by the measure to acquire land compulsorily by purchase or lease,; and to sublet such land in village allotments and also in small holdings. ;

A Commissioner under the Board of Agriculture is empowered to administer the Act where the local authorities fail to do so.

The purchasing or leasing price is to be fixed by arbitration. The local loans raised under the Bill are to be repayable in SO years. The Treasury is to contribute £100,000 for the purposes of the Act in the first year. The small holdings are not to exceed 50, acres, and the village allotments are to be increased from one to five acres. " > '~. Mr. Harcourt said the Bill would not set up dual ownership or confer on the tenantry' a salable tenant right. He did \ not believe the compulsory purchase clause would be widely resorted to. Mr. Walter Long opposed the compulsory purchase or leasing 1 clause. Mr. Jesse Collings said he thought it a mistake to keep small holders in the position of tenants. The Bill was read a first time.

All the powers except those of compulsory ] purchase and compulsory administration of the Act are contained in existing legislation. Little, however, has been done in the creation of village allotments and small holdings owing to the local bodies refraining from exercising their powers. Hence the power given under the new Bill to a Commissioner to administer the Act in districts where the local authority neglects to do so.