xxiii THE SOCIAL QUAGMIRE 421 



Moral Effects of the secure Homestead, 



In the same reports remarks are made on the material 

 and moral effects of this experiment. Mr. Little says : 



"The family have a much more comfortable home, and many 

 advantages, such as milk, butter, eggs, which they would not other- 

 wise enjoy. The man has a motive for saving his money and 

 employing his spare time ; he enjoys a position of independence ; 

 he is elevated in the social scale ; his self-respect is awakened and 

 stimulated, and he acquires a stake and an interest in the country." 



And the same reporter again recurs to the subject in 

 the following weighty remarks : 



" Interesting as this subject is in its relation to agriculture, as 

 showing the capacity for improvement which some barren spots 

 possess, and as a triumph of patience and industry, it is most valuable 

 as an instance where the opportunity of investing surplus wages and 

 spare hours in the acquirement of a home for the family, an inde- 

 pendent position for the labourer, a provision for wife and children 

 in the future, has been a great encouragement to thrift and provi- 

 dence. It is not only that the estate represents so much land 

 reclaimed from the waste arid put to a good use, it represents also so 

 much time well spent, which would, without this incentive, have 

 most probably been wasted, and wages, which would otherwise 

 probably have been squandered, employed in securing a homestead 

 and some support for the Avidow and family when the workman dies." 



The men who reclaimed this waste, it must be re- 

 membered, are all miners, hence the references to their 

 " wages " ; and all these good results are secured on an 

 uncertain tenure dependent on the duration of the longest 

 of three lives, after which it all reverts to the landlord, 

 who has not spent a penny on it, but has, on the contrary, 

 received rent the whole time for giving the tenants 

 permission to reclaim it ! Under an equitable system of 

 permanent tenure, the interest of the labourer in improving 

 the land would be greater, his position more secure, and 

 the benefit to the nation in the creation of happy homes 

 more certain to be brought about. 



Another illustration of the moral effects of even a 

 moderately good land-system is given by the Honourable 

 George C. Brodrick, in his interesting work English 



