CHAPTER III 



THE CREATION OF SMALL HOLDINGS 

 THROUGH PHILANTHROPIC LAND 

 COMPANIES 



THE holdings we have been considering in the last 

 chapter form a definite substratum to a regular 

 small-holding system in this country ; they are, as 

 we have seen, of many different types, and are 

 scattered widely throughout the kingdom. But 

 ever since the wholesale reduction of holdings 

 in the middle of the last century it has been recog- 

 nized that a far more wide-reaching and universal 

 system would be beneficial to the nation at large, 

 and not impossible to establish. 



There have been, therefore, attempts made at 

 intervals to bring about a greater settlement of 

 people on the land. The various natures of these 

 attempts and their results will now be considered 

 in the following chapters. The holdings which we 

 have already studied showed us the conditions 

 under which new holdings could arise naturally 

 when unhampered by existing laws, or old ones 

 could succeed when already established and the 

 cose of their creation had not to be considered. 



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