2i6 LAND REFORM 



with the land around them, form comfortable and 

 attractive little homesteads. 



Mr. S. Thornely (clerk to the County Council), re- 

 ferring to these buildings, states : — 



" Very good houses, consisting of a good kitchen 

 and living-room, with back kitchen and larder and 

 three good bedrooms, with necessary outbuildings, 

 including stable, tool-house, copper for boiling pig 

 food, and generally two pigsties, have been erected, 

 and the contracted price has averaged ^^286, excluding 

 hauling."^ 



The men engragre their own architects and, no doubt, 

 examine the contracts and watch the progress of the 

 building of their own homes. This in itself is a useful 

 training- in business affairs. The advisers of the 

 County Council seem to be careful men, and to have 

 taken ample precautions that the ratepayers should 

 not lose by " land speculation." The interest charged 

 and the amount of instalments are, in the words of 

 Mr. Thornely, "worked out with a view to leave a 

 fair profit to the county ratepayers." 



It may be stated, roughly, that the men pay, on an 

 average, ^40 per acre for the land — exclusive of the 

 buildings — and that their annual payments (reckoning 

 4 per cent on the fifth paid down) are about £2 per 

 acre. 



These are full prices for land that was, when 

 bought, of an indifferent, if not a poor quality. But 

 the annual payment per acre is much less than the 

 men would have to pay as tenants under private 

 persons, besides which, they are owners of the soil, 

 and at the end of forty years all payments will cease. 



^ See " County Council Times," December, 1904. Article by Mr. 

 Thornely. 



