RISKS TO THE STATE 257 



tory men. The rent is, for the most of it, 15s. per 

 acre, for some of it less. I should be willing to offer 

 to sell the whole estate to the present tenants Sit £1^ 

 per acre." Now if these nine tenants were to accept 

 this offer, they would, without having to find a farthing 

 of capital, become owners of the farms, subject to a 

 payment, for a limited time, of 9s. gd. per acre, 

 instead of the 15s. they are now paying in rent. It is 

 difficult to know what reasons, consistent with common 

 sense, can be advanced against legislation which would 

 allow such arrangements as these to be carried out. 



The first necessary step in dealing with the Bill is 

 that the proposals made in it should be discussed and 

 understood. Agricultural associations have had the 

 measure before them and have come to different con- 

 clusions respecting it. The Central Chamber of Agri- 

 culture is a body said to be composed of the pick of 

 English farmers. At a meeting of the Chamber held 

 2 February, 1904, the Land Purchase Bill was dis- 

 cussed. The resolution on which the discussion was 

 to hang was — somewhat unfairly — drafted in terms 

 hostile to the Bill. It ran : " This Council considers 

 that there is no necessity for Mr. Collings' Land Pur- 

 chase Bill for England and Wales." 



The debate was instructive, and showed the neces- 

 sity of reading and understanding proposals before 

 discussing them. Some of the speakers evidently 

 thought that these preliminary steps were unneces- 

 sary. 



Mr. H. Williams (Monmouthshire Chamber) moved 

 an amendment expressing approval of the Bill, and in 

 a short speech directly to the point, said : — 



" The Bill was a very desirable one, for reasons 

 which would apply to those cases in which land was 



