88 LAND OWNERSHIP 



Owners or Tenants. 



A violent and unnecessary controversy has 

 arisen on the respective merits of the two 

 systems. It is not inspired by interest in the 

 welfare of agriculture or the best use of the 

 soil, which should be the objects in view, but 

 by quite extraneous motives. Both systems 

 have always existed and both are desirable. 

 One suits some men and some conditions 

 best, the other suits others. But so far as 

 keeping the population on the land is con- 

 cerned there is no question that for the most 

 energetic and enterprising men the prospect 

 of ownership is the most powerful of attrac- 

 tions and its realisation the strongest tie. It 

 is this which is attracting so many to Canada 

 and elsewhere. It is not an easier life or the 

 pleasures of the town, because they are going 

 to a harder life far away from the town ; it 

 is the prospect of independence and the op- 

 portunity of realising themselves. No possible 

 rise in wages or improvement in housing can 

 weigh against this attraction. And if it be 

 possible, why should they not have it at 

 home ? They are the very men to make the 

 utmost of the soil which they hope to call 

 their own. They are said to be few because 

 the applicants are few under the Small Hold- 

 ings Acts. But the emigration returns, which 

 have aroused the cry that large numbers of 

 the best men are leaving the land and fleeing 



