Land Problems and National Welfare 



The Small Holdings Act of 1907 is the most 

 comprehensive of modern Acts dealing with land, 

 and it has certain very good features. 



It is erroneous to suppose that the main pro- 

 visions of this Act emanated from the extreme 

 Radicals, Socialists and nationalisers of land. 

 There was only one group of reformers in readi- 

 ness with a definite scheme for developing small 

 holdings when the present Government came 

 into office. I refer to a little society which 

 had come into being some three years before, 

 through the energy of Mr. Charles Roden Buxton, 

 and which had commissioned Mrs. Roland 

 Wilkins (nee Miss Jebb) to undertake a scientific 

 investigation of the circumstances that had 

 actually contributed to the formation of exist- 

 ing small holdings in different parts of England. 

 The results of the investigation, never before 

 attempted on these lines, were naturally invalu- 

 able as a basis for legislation ; and when the 

 Government turned their attention to the 

 question they took over almost in their entirety 

 the suggestions of this little society. Mr. L. 

 Harcourt introduced the Bill and Mr. John 

 Burns made it his special care, watching over 

 it in its committee stage, until it finally became 

 the fully-fiedged Act as we know it. 



Though the Liberals have no official land 

 policy, I honestly think that during the past few 

 years they have shown a greater interest in land 



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