Land Problems and National Welfare 



of or additions to the existing legislation on 

 small holdings as would give to cultivators 

 really desirous of purchasing a holding every 

 reasonable opportunity for doing so that they 

 could desire. This procedure would supply the 

 means of meeting an actual want and give the 

 principle of ownership at least a better chance 

 of development where or when it might be 

 adopted with advantage. 



" I cannot but conclude, therefore, that while 

 every reasonable facility should certainly be 

 afforded for meeting any genuine desire for the 

 ownership of small holdings, the development 

 of a system of co-operative tenancy on the lines 

 I have indicated would be of great assistance 

 in facilitating the settlement of more people on 

 the land, and that not only would it offer still 

 greater prospects of economic success, but it 

 would also, in effect, prove quite as strong a 

 bulwark as peasant proprietary against the 

 advance of Socialistic ideas. There is, in any 

 case, room for both systems, and a Unionist 

 government could not do better than let the 

 small holders have their choice. 



" In a concluding article I propose to deal with 

 co-operation, credit, and the revival of rural life. 



" But, in view of the considerations already 

 presented, a Unionist Government should, I 

 think, go farther than this and encourage also, 

 as an alternative system, the co-operative rent- 



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