360 STUDIES, SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIAL CHAP. 



would be less keen and prices lower. But is it at all 

 likely that for a long time the supply of land will be 

 greater than the demand, except quite locally, and tem- 

 porarily ? Is it not, on the contrary, almost certain that 

 the demand will, at first and for a long time to come, 

 perhaps always, be greater than the supply ? Is it not 

 our contention that the depression of agriculture and the 

 deplorable condition of so many of our workers is due to 

 the denial of access to land, and that when that access is 

 freely given it will bring about the well-being, first of 

 those who cultivate it, and afterwards of all other wage- 

 earners ? There will therefore be a constant and ever 

 increasing demand for land ; but unless we take care that 

 those who apply for it have it on such terms that they 

 can not only make a good living from it, but also provide 

 for a comfortable old age, the benefits we anticipate will 

 not arise. It is to avoid any such failure, to prevent the 

 recurrence of the miserable spectacle of men being ejected 

 from their holdings for non-payment of high rents ; to 

 secure for them something better than a struggle ending 

 in dependence on charity in old age, that I urge the fixing 

 of rents by valution, taking always the amount paid by 

 prosperous farmers in the same district, rather than that 

 of allotment-holders, as the standard of value. The land 

 when purchased by the local authorities, will be purchased 

 at the farm value, and it can be let at that value at first 

 without loss to the community. 



The above sketch of the reasons why I object to the 

 system of competition-rents sufficiently exhibits the 

 principle on which, in my opinion, our dealings with the 

 land should be founded. But there is also a practical 

 objection to that system that it would be very unequal 

 in its results, and also that it can hardly be carried out 

 unless based on a preliminary valuation. I presume the 

 advocates of competition-rents do not propose that land 

 should always be let to the highest bidder, without any 

 reserve whatever. For, if so, whenever the intending 

 tenants were less numerous than the lots to be offered, 

 these lots might be let at much less than agricultural 

 rents. No doubt it will be said there must be a reserved 



