5 RURAL DENMARK 



demands, the facts of the case being very difficult to 

 discover. 



His general view was adverse to the creation of 

 State small-holders owning the freehold. He considered 

 that under the existing economical conditions, these 

 would have arisen by themselves without the aid of 

 public money, especially in the case of men fitted to 

 work them. He held that the best way for the State 

 to help the small man would be by some system 

 between freehold and leasehold, such as a long lease 

 for several lives which would not result in artificially 

 enhancing the price of land. He believed that the 

 forthcoming commission to be appointed to consider 

 such matters would work on these lines and towards 

 these ends. The general opinion in Denmark, or 

 at any rate a very extensive section of it, was that 

 things could not go on as they were. Either the law 

 would have to lapse at the expiration of the five years, 

 or some modification of it must be devised. The first 

 enthusiasm for that law was evaporating as its advo- 

 cates discovered how few could be aided under its 

 provisions. Therefore many of these had modified 

 or were beginning to modify their views to the extent 

 of desiring a change from freehold to long leasehold. 



As regarded what that change should be, he 

 suggested that the old Danish faeste tenure, that is, 

 either a lease depending on the life of the tenant and 

 his wife, or in some cases an hereditary or a continual 

 lease, might be taken as a model and enlarged. An 

 inheritable leasehold for several lives might be created 

 at a fixed rent, but such rent could always be refixed 

 when a new tenant entered into possession. 



Lastly, in answer to a question from myself, Mr. 

 Waage informed me that the State " houseman" is 



