COUNTY COUNCIL FREEHOLDERS 259 



were satisfied with tenancy, than by practically burying 

 it in the land in order that he could call himself ' pro- 

 prietor ' a proprietor, that is to say, who stands with 

 a four-fifths' mortgage, the annual payments on which 

 still constitute, so long as they last, a ' rent ' in another 

 form, leaving him, besides, as ' proprietor,' to pay for 

 all improvements and meet all the permanent charges. 



Then, the remarks I have made with regard to the 

 increase in the price of land in Denmark, and the 

 effect of the State loans to facilitate purchase, would 

 apply in special degree to the purchase of land by 

 County Councils. The land desired would acquire an 

 enhanced value instantly it became known that the 

 purchasers represented a local governing body ; and it 

 is on this enhanced value over and above any increase 

 due merely to a greater demand for small holdings 

 that the peasant proprietors would pay. 



It is, again, a matter of common knowledge that the 

 work of erecting buildings and providing roads, fences, 

 drainage, etc., as carried out by a public body, would 

 assuredly cost more than such work as done by private 

 individuals or a private company ; so that here, once 

 more, the County Council freeholders would pay on 

 a higher scale. 



The expenditure thus unduly swollen and following 

 on the sinking in ownership of money that should have 

 been kept as working capital must be met out of the 

 return on the commodities produced from the land. 

 There is no suggestion that the commodities themselves 

 would have an enhanced value because they had been 

 grown on County Council small holdings, and * senti- 

 ment ' would not count for much at Covent Garden or 

 elsewhere, so that the peasant proprietor, created by Act 

 of Parliament, would either have to work very much 

 harder, in the hope of increasing his output, or else be 



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