CONTINENTAL NOTKS — GERMANY. 213 



to only 470 for the entire State forests, and though a certain 

 number were newly built, and others acquired in the purchase 

 of estates, only 1232 domiciles existed at the end of 1908. 



The funds for new buildings were very limited, permitting 

 only the cheapest i)ossible construction, and at the outset houses 

 were built containing two and four habitations under the same 

 roof, costing between ^125 and ^150 for each domicile. 

 The rents were fixed at from ^i, 5s. to £^2 per annum, but 

 even on these terms only Poles and Kassubians, neither of 

 whom, for political reasons, it is desirable to encourage as a 

 permanency in the eastern provinces, were ready to take the 

 houses; the German labourers, having grown more exacting 

 with time, and feeling themselves to a certain extent masters 

 of the position, were not satisfied with the housing offered. 

 More substantial houses were built, costing ;^2 2 5 for each 

 domicile, for which a rent was fixed at ^t^, ios. It is estimated 

 that, taking everything into consideration, the State will lose 

 annually about ;^io on each workman. This great sacrifice 

 naturally limits the extension of such building operations to 

 the housing of persons in permanent employ; moreover, it 

 becomes increasingly difficult to fill even these houses per- 

 manently with the highest class of labourers, for the best men 

 are the most ambitious to found a real permanent home on 

 a property of their own, and this is incompatible with the 

 construction of expensive Government quarters. 



The formation of labour colonies would seem to be the only 

 possible way of meeting both the desire of acquiring property 

 and, at the same time, of securing a permanent labour supply, 

 but so far experiments with these two objects in view have not 

 been very encouraging. 



The first plan tried was initiated by the Agricultural Depart- 

 ment in conjunction with the Forest Department, both setting 

 apart considerable areas of arable land. These were let on 

 long leases, at rates considerably below the market value, to 

 settlers of the labouring class. A mistake was made in awarding 

 too much land to each settler, and this, in the first instance, led 

 to the emigration of a certain number of small men, who were 

 deprived of areas formerly rented by them. The colonists 

 who remained in possession have done well for themselves; they 

 keep horses, cattle, and a large number of pigs, in fact they have 

 become well-to-do peasants, pork producers, and carriers. They 



