SMALL-HOLDING OWNERSHIP 227 



that have ensued from the establishment of the State 

 small-holders in Denmark under the laws of 1899, 

 1904, and 1909. 



Passing on from the general question, I come to 

 that of the particular objections advanced against 

 these laws by those who in the main approve of 

 their principles. Of these I think there are but two, 

 namely (1) that the small-holdings should be lease- 

 hold and not freehold, and (2) that the proportion of 

 capital required to be provided by the small-holder 

 should be increased. 



It will be remembered that Mr. Waage, perhaps 

 the greatest authority on the subject in Denmark, 

 and the gentleman whose official duty it was to draft 

 the last two of the three Acts, expressed himself to 

 me as being strongly in favour of the substitution of 

 long or even of perpetual leaseholds for the existing 

 system of freehold. Also there are many others who 

 share his views upon this point. 



The advocates of the freehold plan allege, how- 

 ever, that the real reason of this advocacy is political ; 

 that what Mr. Waage and his friends desire is to 

 introduce the thin end of the wedge of land-national- 

 isation by vesting the real ownership of a great block 

 of property in the State, and the leasing out of this 

 property to such tenants as it may approve. 



In fact their arguments are very similar to those 

 which we hear in England on the matter of the 

 tenancies held under the County Councils. These, 

 it is freely stated, have been brought into being by 

 the Liberal party with a like object ; also for the 

 reason that a tenant, who is generally a person with 

 something to gain and therefore to agitate for, may 

 as a rule be relied on to vote Radical, while a free- 



