WAYS AND MEANS 63 



almost invariably mortgages his farm, and as a mort- 

 gage has no sinking fund it becomes a perpetual charge. 



X 



THE PUBPOSE OF THE COLONIES 



The three colonies will be under the charge of Captain 

 C. Bathurst, and no better choice could have been made, 

 for he has a passion for the land and everything to do 

 with it. Each colony will be devoted mainly to a single 

 type of cultivation — one to fruit growing and market 

 gardening, one to dairy farming, and one to mixed 

 farming. The colonies will be a torch to show men the 

 way to contentment on the land. It is not pretended 

 that small holdings, for the present, will be more than 

 a small contribution to an agricultural policy. The 

 efiFect of the colonies will be social and educational. 

 They will stand as witnesses of what a clean and healthy 

 rural life can be like. They will illustrate the best 

 methods of farming on a small scale. 



Above all, small holdings will be the ladder by which 

 a labourer can rise from the lowest position to be his 

 own master. With the help of credit banks it will be 

 possible for any thrifty, sensible, and industrious 

 labourer to move up. The old reproach that agri- 

 cultural labour is a blind-alley occupation will fall 

 away. 



The opportunities for ambitious and determined 

 men to climb up the agricultural ladder should be made 

 known widely and vividly in England. The supply of 

 small holdings only awaits the demand. Every year 

 our villages have been the hunting-ground of emigration 



