LAND NATIONALIZATION 271 



ments, unexhausted manures, etc., on the land, which last sum must be 

 paid before obtaining possession. 



(4) The rents of the plots thus allotted to be collected by the local 

 rate-collector, and the amounts, less a percentage for collection, to be 

 paid to the landlord. 



(5) The tenure of the plots to be secure so long as they are person- 

 ally occupied, and to be saleable or transferable ; while the rents are to 

 be fixed for long periods, and only raised by a new general valuation 

 in case the value of the land itself has risen irrespective of all im- 

 provements, which last remain the absolute property of the tenant. 



By the method thus sketched out no attack is made on private prop- 

 erty, and no new principle in dealing with land is introduced, since 

 many industrial enterprises calculated chiefly to benefit individuals 

 often obtain from Parliament the right to take land. It is now only 

 asked that the same power may be given to the people at large, under 

 strict limitations, and in order to benefit the whole community by 

 bringing about a more natural distribution of population, and a greater 

 and more varied production of food and other useful products. 



Various popular objections to labourers having land were then 

 answered, and it was shown that none of them has any force as 

 applied to the proposed scheme, the claims and merits of which were 

 summed up as follows : 



(1) That it goes to the very root of the matter, since, by rendering a 

 large number of labourers less dependent on daily wages as their only 

 means of obtaining food, it would immediately and necessarily raise 

 the standard of wages; and this is absolutely the only means by which 

 the labouring classes may at once be enabled more fully to share in the 

 products of industry. 



(2) It does this in the simplest conceivable way, by throwing down 

 the barriers which now prevent labour from spreading over the land. 



(3) It would enable every labourer, by industry and thrift, to realize 

 his highest aspiration — " a homestead of his own." 



(4) It would largely increase the food supply of the country, especi- 

 ally in dairy produce, poultry, fruit, and vegetables, now to the amount 

 of thirty-eight millions annually imported from abroad. 



(5) It would, by a self-acting, gradual process, withdrawing the con- 

 gested population of the towns back to the rural districts from which 

 they have so largely come in recent times, and would at the same time 

 benefit all who remained by both raising their wages and lowering 

 their rents. 



(6) It would completely settle both the Irish and the Highland land 

 questions by satisfying the just claims of the labourers and cottiers in 

 one country, and the crofters in the other, and would open up to 

 human industry extensive areas of both countries, once cultivated, but 

 now devoted exclusively to cattle, sheep, or game. 



