READINGS IN RURAL KCONOMICS 



action, or the administration of the act is transferred to the 

 Board of Agriculture a course which would have some dis- 

 advantages for all practical purposes it may be regarded as non- 

 existent. How, then, can these men be helped ? By direct 

 government aid ? I think not. Such aid pauperises and is foreign 

 to our character and traditions. Indirect aid, which enables the 

 individual to help himself, is another matter. I propose that it 

 should take this form. First, the extension of the provisions of 

 the Housing of the Working Classes Act of 1890, to enable pub- 

 lic bodies and landowners to borrow money from the treasury, 

 to whatever extent they may wish, for the erection of both cottages 

 and farm buildings sufficient for the purposes of small-holdings, 

 at a more reasonable rate of interest than is at present charged by 

 the loan commissioners. Such interest to be repayable over a 

 term of sixty instead of forty years, as at present, and to include 

 a provision for a sinking fund which would automatically extin- 

 guish the debt at the termination of that period. As it is, the 

 great majority of landowners are absolutely unable to afford to put 

 up cottages and outbuildings, even when they so desire, without 

 which, small-holdings can seldom be multiplied. 



But it is undoubtedly to the interest of the nation that these 

 should be multiplied, and still more so that the cottage accom- 

 modation of the working classes in rural districts should be im- 

 proved. Surely it would not be beyond the resources of financial 

 experts to formulate a scheme under which the necessary funds 

 might be forthcoming without actual loss to the treasury, or, at 

 the worst, at a loss so small that it should not be allowed to weigh 

 against the advantage gained. 



Of course I know the answer that owing to the cost of our 

 wars the government itself must pay about 3 per cent for money. 

 If this is held to be conclusive, there is nothing more to be said. 

 Still, I wish to point out that when millions are so easily forthcom- 

 ing for enterprises of the character of the Uganda Railway, which 

 is not likely to prove a remunerative investment, or to assist Boers, 

 who have brought their troubles on their own heads, it is hard 

 that help should be withheld from such home schemes as I have 

 suggested on the ground that, commercially, they might not pay. 



