LAND TENURES 281 



taken hold of the country and grii)ped the people in 

 their widespread embrace. 

 (h) They should recognise that the old plan of running the 

 agricultural industry on the "rental" system is as 

 dead as a salted herring, and that a new and better 

 one must spring out of its carcase, as the fabled 

 Phoenix is said to arise from its own ashes. 



(c) They should come forward as an influential body and 



ask Government to take immediate steps to take over 

 their lands on equitable terms, with tlie avowed object 

 of creating and maintaining a well-considered scheme 



of OcCUPYING-OwNEltimill'S. 



(d) They should frankly admit the ineptness of the old 



system and the necessity for a new one, and then help 

 in a wdiole-hearted manner to secure its immediate 

 accomplishment. 



The AwAKENixa of LandownePwS 

 Fortunately there are not wanting signs of a desire to 

 improve the situation : the contemplated sale of the Thorney 

 Island estate of 20,000 acres, by the Duke of Bedford,* being 

 the most recent indication of the awakening of the great 

 landowners to the pressing necessities of the case. It should, 

 however, be borne in mind tliat while this instance affords 

 evidence of a vjUlingness on the part of landowners to sell, 

 the situation will not be improved in the least by sales of this 

 description. It is more than probable this land will be purchased 

 by some rich speculator who will continue to run it on the rental 

 system, or, it may be, the owner will offer it to Government 

 at a price that would render negotiations for the purpose of 

 Occupy ing-Ownerships impossible, and obviously this would 

 be but a transference from the frying-pan into the fire. This 

 vast estate should be acquired at reasonable cost, either by its 

 present tenants or by capable agriculturists who would run it 

 for all it is worth, and work their own lives into every spit of 

 the spade and every furrow of the i)lough as their confreres do 

 in France and other coimtries, and as they must do in this 

 country before they can command uniform success in every 

 branch of the industry. 



The Awakening of the Purlic Mind to Compulsory 



Affoiiestation 



Th(>n, this awakening of the public mind to the necessiti/ for 

 compulsory sale of the land is further indicated by the " Second 

 Eeport on Afforestation," f published in the early part of this year. 



* Diiihj Mail, February 25, 1909. 



t Iloya'l Commission ou Coast Erosion and Afforestation, 1909. 



