FREEHOLD IN DENMARK

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1689, 21 November 1925, Page 7

FREEHOLD IN DENMARK

TE>*A>'TS AM) OWXEKS. OWN YOUR FARM. Denmark is universally recognised as the leading agricultural country, by reason of the high development of its methods of utilising t'he land and the 4 advanced 'system of education which is associated with agriculture. The foundation of its success has 'been the freehold tenure. Recently Mr Lloyd George has ibeen advocating nationalisation of agricultural land in England and is proof that the existing system is at fault has pointed to the flourishing agriculture of-. Denmark. " Then why not learn from Denmark how it achieved its position after its war with Germany?" asks My C. Turner, the well-known agricultural expert, in the London Sunday Times. "When 'Denmark lost Schleswig-Hol-stein her agriculture wa s faced with a crisis more serious than any agricultural crisis in this country. Seventy years ago the 'proportion of occupying tenants in Denmark was the same as in England in 1913, namely, S 8 per cent occupying tenants and 12 per cent occupying owners. The Danes recognised that this system was one under which it was impossible to organise and develop agriculture, so they expanded their system of occupying ownership and provided adequate machinery to enable tenants to buy their farms. To-day (Denmark has 90 per cent of occupying owners and only 10 per cent of tenants, and she has the most highly - organised, flourishing agricultural industry in the world. Surely it is better to follow such an example than to embark upon experiments which at the best must he very costly."