STIRRINGS OF NEW LIFE. 163 



labourers who had been trying to make both ends meet on 

 a wage of 133., 143., or even i8s., a week, were not likely to 

 be small capitalists ; and when most County Councils made 

 it a rule not to approve of applicants who could not show 

 that they were in possession of capital to the extent of 10 

 an acre, many farm labourers fell out of the ranks of those 

 who had been looking with eagerness towards the land 

 which had been promised them. 



Soon it was realised that it was not the labourer who was 

 to be provided with a small holding, but the village publi- 

 can, the blacksmith, the baker, the carrier, or the wheel- 

 wright, who used it in several counties for a " turn-out " 

 for a horse, or a pony. 



In his simplicity, many a labourer having heard the 

 Small Holdings Act was passed, thought that he had only 

 to pick out a certain field and ask for it, and it would be 

 allotted to him. I knew of men who bought live-stock at 

 the passing of the Small Holdings Act believing that it was 

 only a matter of opening a gate into a field and turning the 

 beasts in, and possession would be theirs ! 



Indeed, one or two instances have come to my knowledge 

 of men keeping their cattle on the roadside expecting every 

 day to hear that small holdings had been allotted to them, 

 only to find at the end of the summer that they had to sell 

 their stock. These of course would be the more prosperous 

 of the men, generally piece-workers, who had already 

 probably an acre or two rented from some friendly landowner 

 or vicar, or men living adjacent to a common with grazing 

 rights. 



But with the ordinary labourer lack of capital was not the 

 only obstacle. Very often he had to make his appearance 

 before an unsympathetic, or even hostile Committee of a 

 County Council, and be subject to a severe cross-examination 

 as to his means and qualifications. 



It was a short-sighted policy in a County Council domin- 

 ated by landowners and large farmers, which objected to 

 facilitating the working of the Small Holdings Act, for as 

 has been proved in most districts the landowners obtain a 

 higher rent from small holders than they do from farmers ; 



