"Back to the Land."

Timaru Herald, Volume XIC, Issue 13337, 13 July 1907, Page 4 (Supplement)

"Back to the Land."

SMALL HOLDINGS AT HOME. (Home Paper.) Opinion in Liberal circles in Birmingliam, and among many Unionists, is decidedly favourable to the Small Holdings Bill. Mr Frederick Impey, chairman of the Allotments and Small Holdings Association, and a, member of the Small Holdings Association of the Worcestershire- County Council, interviewed recently, said : " The Bill strikes out an entirely new policy, and one for which there is the greatest necessity —a large estention of compulsory powers for hiring land for the purposes of small holdings." Asked if he thought the Bill would have any effect on, rural depopulation, hs said : " I think it will be the most momentous step which has been taken since the enclosure of commons towards repopulation in many districts of country places, and in the prevention of the depopulation which is taking- placet in almost every part of rural England. It is not only the attractions of town life which drive people away from villages, but the impossibility of getting more than a bare subsistence as labourers if they stay where they were born. " Perhaps' the most significant principle laid down by the Bill, and one- which should meet "with the widest approval of land reformers of every kind, is tho 4 factthat purchasing proprietors are distinctly ■ discouraged by the provisions of the Bill. It has been felt-by many who have- had experience and have given thought to the subject that to create every where, by the help of the State, proprietors who might afterwards- resell the holdings at an enhanced price, would be to re-create the Irish difficulty, and to defeat the purposes of those reformers -who have urged that small holdings, to be of any value, should remain as such permanently." Befsrences have been made.in and outi of Parliament to the experiment in small holdings which is now being conducted on the Crown land at Burwell. in Cambridgeshire, by Mr C. D. Eose, the Member for the Newmarket. Division. The farm, had bean carried on by the Crown Commissioners for two years for want of a tenant, at something of a loss. Ifc was taken up by Mr Eose for small holdings, and is now let to severity-five tenants. The scheme has come in for criticism lately from some of those who pretend to be the friends of the agricultural labourer, but who. curiously enough, never look with any favour upon movements which are started with the object of improving the labourer's condition and placing Mm in a position of independence. The best answer to the criticisms and misstatements which have been made is provided by the success of the scheme itself, as shown at the first rent audit. All the men who worked on the Crown farm were given the opportunity to stay and take small holdings. Those'who did not desire .to do so received compensation money. There were thirteen cottages resident on the farm. Four of them stayed and became small holders'. Under the Small Holdings scheme the farm, which contained over 900 acres, was let in seventy-five holdings. Twenty-five of these are in half-acre allotments. There are six with one acre, and the rest are holdings varying from three and four acres up to seventy-five acres. Seventy out of the s?-venty-five small holder;, attended the rent audit held by the agent, and in answer to questions, experessed theriiselves thoroughly satisfied with the result of first half-year's work on the holdings. There was never the slightest difficulty in getting tenants-. All the holdinsrs were readily taken up by local people, all being inhabitants of Burwell, except two or three who come from neighbouring villages. The success of the scheme is apparent in the prosperous condition of Biirwell to-day. In previous years many men have been out of employment, in the winter especially, but since the small holdings scheme has been in operation there has hardly been a man of employment in the place. Such has been the demand for spare labour created on small holdings, that, farmers, who previously could pick and choose their men, have had to go outside for men. The highway surveyor, it is stated, also found this difficulty, for he could not get men to cart his granite from the trucks at tin- station for use on the roads, so busy were the men on the small holdings. Apart from the increased energy which the men put into their new holdings, there is this fact to account for the increased demand for labour —that the Crown Commissioners employed ae little labour as possible, ploughing the land by fleam and doing all the farm work possible by means of machinery, whereas on the small holdings everything is done by team and manual labour. The- tradespeople, too, are sharing in the new prosperity. A.s an instance, it may be mentioned that the turnover of the" local co-operative stores has increased by nearly £IOO in the last quarter -and that usually the wor>t quarter of the year for them. On the instruction of the Crown Commissioners, their agent, Mr Carter Jonas, has just presented a- report from the Burwell holdings. That report is now in the hands of Lord Carrington, and is a most satisfactory one. It slates that th« scheme haN been worked on the most economical principles, and holdings are in the hands of practical men.