232 AGRICULTURAL ORGANISATION 



association formed for the purposes of creating or promoting 

 the creation of small holdings, and so constituted that the 

 division of profits amongst the members is prohibited or 

 restricted/' The Act further authorises County Councils to 

 promote the formation or extension of societies, on a co- 

 operative basis, having for their object, or one of their 

 objects, " the provision or the profitable working of small 

 holdings or allotments." 



ADVANTAGES. 



It was confidently hoped and anticipated that con- 

 siderable use would be made of these powers, which had so 

 much in their favour from the point of view both of the 

 County Councils and of the small holders. 



The prospective advantages to the County Councils 

 were : (i) that the work of a Council in providing small 

 holdings would be greatly facilitated through the formation 

 of Co-operative Land Renting Societies, since the Council 

 would then deal, in any district, with a single body instead of 

 with a large number of individual holders ; (2) that the 

 Council would receive the rents in one lump sum from such 

 single body, which itself would collect the rents from the 

 tenants and would be in a better position to undertake the 

 task than the officials of a local governing body ; (3) that 

 provided the society had an adequate amount of uncalled 

 share capital, full security for payment of the sum total of 

 the rent would be given, since the failure of any member to 

 pay his own rent would not relieve the society from its 

 responsibility for the whole amount due, while the society 

 itself would have the means of meeting all claims ; (4) that 

 the Council would be spared responsibility in supervision 

 and control ; and (5) that the members of a local society 

 would be better able than a County Council to judge of 

 the suitability and capacity of applicants for land, and would 

 have a direct interest in seeing that their fellow members 

 cultivated their land properly. 



For the small holders themselves the advantages expected 

 were : (i) That they might be in a position to obtain land 



