CHAPTER IV 



THE CREATION OF SMALL HOLDINGS 

 THROUGH COMMERCIAL LAND COM- 

 PANIES 



IN the last chapter we considered land com- 

 panies which were started as philanthropy on a 

 business basis, for the definite object of increasing 

 settlement on the land. Generally speaking, they 

 have been managed by men either without any 

 real business capacity, or without any very intimate 

 knowledge or any experience at all on the subject, 

 their chief, if not only, qualification for what they 

 undertook, being an enthusiasm for the object in 

 view. We have seen that, in the case of those 

 which were established long enough ago for results 

 to be judged, as commercial transactions they were 

 failures. 



There is another style of land company which 

 is run purely as a commercial speculation, and 

 does not pretend to be philanthropic. This sort 

 appears to be successful from a business point of 

 view, and, as a matter of fact, caters for exactly 

 the same class of persons as those with whom the 



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