40 THE ERRORS OF THE PAST 



should be abolished, but I am convinced that on 

 every ground — social, moral and economic — it is 

 highly desirable that the number of owners should 

 be raised. Unfortunately, with us the question of 

 " Tenancy or Ownership " has become a Party 

 question — which means that it has never been 

 considered dispassionately and purely on its merits. 

 And yet it is a most important question to answer. 

 For on its solution will depend whether we shall 

 be able to arrest the downward movement in our out- 

 put of food and in the number of people Uving on 

 and by the land. 



Far too often tenants will be found trusting to 

 their landowners to help them over difficulties which 

 they should make an effort to surmount themselves. 

 Again, under our present system landowners do all 

 the repairs of buildings, whereas in the old days it 

 was customary both for the occupying owner and the 

 tenant to do their own repairs. It seems clear that if 

 a farmer is responsible for the upkeep of his buildings 

 he will look after them much better and put in that 

 " stitch in time " which is the most economical way 

 of keeping buildings in good condition. 



The difficulties of altering our land system so that 

 it would work to the best interests of the entire 

 nation are neither few nor slight, but I am not yet 

 ready to believe that it is beyond our joint inteUi- 

 gence to discover an equitable way of dealing with 

 the land. A promising start in that direction has 

 been made by partnership farming. I am not 

 suggesting that this system could become universal 

 and form a substitute for tenancy or ownership, 

 but it might nevertheless be largely developed 

 especially by landowners on their home farms and 

 any other farms which they may have on hand. 



