TYPES OF APPLICANTS 373 



of person calculated to further any movement of 

 this kind. And these people who have petitioned 

 are, moreover, very often not the most desirable 

 type of applicant. The industrious, thrifty, 

 plodding man just goes on from day to day 

 ' beholden ' to no one, and not wishing to incur 

 the risk of any form of enmity amongst his 

 4 betters ' by doing such a daring thing as applying 

 in glaring publicity to a public body, and thereby 

 showing any discontent with his present lot. In 

 the privacy of the agent's office he may ' bespeak ' 

 one of the few small holdings of the neighbourhood 

 when it should fall in one, perhaps, amongst a 

 dozen similar applications. He may even be 

 looked upon kindly, his merit recognized, and a 

 promise given of the first chance. So for years 

 he plods on again with this hope to keep him 

 going ; but the present occupier lives on, and the 

 holding is not vacant until this man himself has 

 reached an age when it is of no further use for him 

 to begin on such a venture. 



But the man who has no scruples about applying 

 is often of a different type. It may be that he is 

 merely more enlightened as to his rights, and is 

 independent enough not to mind the possible 

 stigma of ' agitating.' On the other hand, he may 

 be of that type of unsuccessful worker with an eye 

 to the main chance, who sees a loophole for better- 

 ing himself, at other people's expense, for the 

 immediate moment. He is generally plausible, 

 and can state his case more glibly than the slow, 



