INTRODUCTION xliii 



enabled the sanitary authority of any urban or rural district, 

 on a requisition from six ratepayers, to provide allotments limited 

 to one acre. The authority had power to take land compulsorily 

 for this purpose. But the machinery of the Act was so cum- 

 bersome and expensive that very little use was made of it. In 

 order to acquire land compulsorily, a provisional order had to be 

 obtained, which was practically an Act of Parliament. And when 

 this course was taken, it was found that the legal expenses exceeded 

 the value of the land. The Act was amended in 1890 by another 

 measure, providing an appeal to the county council. Sir Henry 

 Fowler's Local Government Act of 1894 extended and simplified 

 the powers of local authorities. Parish councils were em- 

 powered to acquire land for allotments, and there was an appeal 

 to the county councils. Parish councils were also enabled to hire 

 land for allotments, the rent to be fixed by a single arbitrator 

 appointed by the Local Government Board. 



In 1892 Mr. Henry Chaplin succeeded in passing his Small Hold- 

 ings Act, which gave power to the county councils to purchase 

 land for small holdings of not less than one and not more than fifty 

 acres in extent. The purchaser was to pay one-fifth of the pur- 

 chase money down, and repay the remainder in equal annual 

 instalments. The great defect of the Act is that it confers 

 no compulsory powers on county councils, and with a few ex- 

 ceptions it has remained a dead letter. 



This, then, is the machinery in existence up to 1907 for the pro- 

 vision of allotments and small holdings, and that it failed to 

 satisfy the land hunger of the agricultural labourer is shown by 

 the working up to 1894. Out of the 419 rural sanitary 

 authorities only 83 had taken advantage of the Act of 1887, 

 and 12 county councils. These had provided 1,836 acres of 

 land and 413 acres respectively, which supplied allotments to 

 5,536 tenants. Then came the Parish Councils Act, and under 

 it 18,601 acres of land was provided for 45,393 tenants in various 

 parts of the country. By the first Allotments Act of 1887 to the 

 year 1902 the acreage provided by local authorities was 20,850, 

 and the number of tenants 50,927. This, of course, takes no 

 account of the extension of the private letting of allotments, nor 

 of the work done by Mr. Jesse Ceilings 's Act of 1882. 



Small holdings, as distinguished from allotments, show a poor 

 result from Mr. Chaplin's Act. The acreage brought under the 

 Act is only 220, and the tenants 136. All these figures are taken 

 from the latest report of the Local Government Board which goes 

 no further than March, 1902. 



The greater part of land acquired by local authorities has been 

 hired by agreement, the compulsory purchase clauses have only 

 been put in force in two cases, and in one of these the St. 

 Faith's case the experiences of the Norfolk County Council were 



