Land Problems and National Welfare 



sides of the problem, it is necessarily to a great 

 extent ineffectual. 



Wherever small holdings have been actively 

 developed on the continent, reform of rural 

 education has always preceded the movement, 

 and the creation of credit banks and encourage- 

 ment of co-operation has come hand in hand 

 with the placing of people on the land. 



So much for general criticism of the Act. 



Let us consider for a moment the execution 

 of the Act. 



Most Ccounty Councils, I think, honestly do 

 their best to carry out the intentions of the Act, 

 but it is only a small percentage of members of 

 Small Holding Committees which at all believes 

 that it is possible to make these small hold- 

 ings pay. The rest wholly doubt the eventual 

 success of the movement, and, worse than this, 

 though they will admit in theory that more 

 people than now should be settled on the land, 

 theydo not realise that every authority concerned 

 must for the good of the whole country increase 

 the number of small holders, and that if one 

 line of action does not answer, another must 

 be tried. 



The County Council is now the supreme 

 local authority. It does not exist merely to give 

 effect more or less heartily to legislation passed 

 by parliament ; it has a higher duty to perform, 

 for it has now the power to devise measures for 



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