APPENDIX 107 



country. Such a measure, however, would be a last resort 

 against a small and recalcitrant minority. The effects of 

 the present heavy issues of Government securities at a high 

 rate of interest is another matter which will inevitably 

 require adjustment after the war. On the whole, however, 

 the problem of agrarian tenures in Ireland has been solved. 

 The Irish problem is now chiefly a problem of small peasant 

 proprietors." 



Many interesting details are given in this book which 

 cannot be quoted here ; and there is also a description of the 

 remarkable work done by the Congested Districts Board. 



Land and Labour : Lessons from Belgium. By 



B. SEEBOHM ROWNTREE. (Macrnillan & Co., London, 1911.) 



This is a very remarkable economic and social study 

 of a small but thickly populated country. The land system 

 of Belgium is described and its economic results are con- 

 sidered. In Part I there are chapters on the history of 

 land tenure, the number of land-owners in Belgium classified 

 according to the size of their holdings ; the laws of succes- 

 sion and inheritance and methods of land transfer. In Part 

 III, which is devoted to agriculture, we find the first 

 chapter devoted to a description of the small holdings, which 

 are characteristic of a large part of the country. Three- 

 fourths of the smallest cultivators are tenants, and only 

 one-fourth own their holdings ; yet there is no obvious differ- 

 ence between the efficiency of cultivation in these two classes 

 of holdings. Belgium suffers like India from the continual 

 sub-division of holdings on account of the law of inheritance 

 by which people divide the property in equal shares ; 

 and although the State has done something to encourage 

 consolidation by exchange of fields, a large proportion of 

 the holdings still consist of a number of widely scattered 

 fields. The disadvantages of this are graphically set forth. 



