xvi PREFACE 



strongly urged that occupying tenancy should 

 not be exclusively adopted as the best or only 

 system of tenure for the increase of which 

 public money may be obtained. 



IMuch importance has been attached to the 

 compulsory acquisition of land under the Small 

 Holdings Act. Where compulsion is used at 

 all, it works at the maximum of friction and the 

 maximum of cost. If an owner is compelled 

 to sell under the powers of the Act, and the 

 sale creates a severance or destroys amenities, 

 the price for the land rises to a sum which 

 renders a scheme for small holdings impractic- 

 able. Especially is this the case when the 

 land, to which compulsion is applied, forms 

 part of an occupied farm. As a matter of ex- 

 perience the compulsory powers are rarely 

 used, and still more rarely v/ith success. The 

 same object might be secured, and more land 

 rendered available, by a less drastic form of 

 compulsion. 



When an estate came into the market, the 

 landowner might be compelled to offer the 

 farms to the County Council for small holdings 

 if the occupying tenants declined to buy. The 

 same compulsion might be applied when farms 



