INTRODUCTION 



DURING the past few years several Allotment 

 Acts have been passed by Parliament which 

 have conferred great benefits on the rural labouring 

 population. A Small Holdings Bill also, after years 

 of delay, became law in 1892. From causes which 

 will be referred to. County Councils, in whose hands 

 the administration of this Act was placed, have, with 

 few exceptions, made no attempt to deal with it. But 

 in the few cases where the Act has been put into 

 operation, the results have been most satisfactory and 

 encouraging. The chief significance, however, of these 

 measures lies in the fact that Parliament, by passing 

 them, has reversed its former policy. The Legisla- 

 ture has at last recognized the principle of giving 

 public aid to restore to the labourers some little of 

 that personal interest in the soil of which ages of pre- 

 vious legislation had so completely deprived them. 



The Purchase of Land (England and Wales) Bill, 

 introduced in the session of 1904, while containing 

 the same principle as the Small Holdings Act, is a 

 far more important measure, affecting, as it does, all 

 classes of the agricultural industry. It seeks by State 

 aid to restore those classes of yeoman farmers and 

 peasant proprietors which in former times were such 

 valuable elements in our rural economy, and had such 

 a marked influence on the social life of the nation. 



