OWNERSHIP AND TENANCY 323 



subletting, the idea being to encourage a system 

 of cultivating ownership rather than a race of 

 impecunious small landlords ; finally, mortgaging 

 the great evil of small holders would not be 

 possible, except as to the quarter of the value of 

 the holding which had to be paid up.* 



To put the other side of the question, all the 

 witnesses examined from the small-holding class 

 were unanimously and strongly of opinion that the 

 fact of having to pay a deposit would debar nearly 

 the whole of the labouring class from making any 

 use of the opportunities offered them to acquire 

 land. While some of these witnesses looked upon 

 ownership as the preferable form of holding, all 

 agreed that tenancy was the most practicable. 

 These opinions were equally strongly borne out by 

 the witnesses from other classes whose professions, 

 chiefly as agents, gave them an opportunity of 

 judging the relative merits of the two sides to this 

 question. They testified to the fact that there was 

 more demand for tenancies than freeholds. Even 

 Lord Wantage, the chairman of the Small Farm 

 and Labourers' Land Company, who alone amongst 

 the remaining witnesses strongly advocated small 

 freeholds, admitted, however, that the payment of 

 a deposit of 10 per cent, seemed to be a serious 



* Mr. Collings's Purchase of Land Bill now before Parlia- 

 ment differs essentially in two points : the Board of Agriculture 

 is made the authority for the supply of holdings, and is em- 

 powered to advance the -whole of the purchase money ; the 

 total repayment being spread over sixty-eight and a half years, 

 when the purchasers become absolute owners. 



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