CHAPTER VIII 



SMALL HOLDINGS 



WITH the bestowal of the labourers' franchise 

 in 1884, it became quite clear that the country 

 districts could no longer be ignored by Parlia- 

 ment as they had been in the past. Hence 

 we find from this moment a series of measures, 

 the ostensible object of which was the pro- 

 vision of land and houses for the needs of the 

 rural population. An Act to enable '* charity " 

 lands to be used for allotments proved almost 

 a dead letter from the start. This was 

 followed, in 1887, by an Allotments Act, giving 

 compulsory powers of acquiring land to 

 Sanitary Authorities, in whose hands, how- 

 ever, they were of little avail ; in 1888, by the 

 Local Government Act which created County 

 Councils ; in 1890, by the Housing Act and 

 an improvement of the Allotments Act ; in 

 1892, by the Small Holdings Act ; and in 1894, 

 by the Local Government Act, creating Parish 

 and District Councils. All these measures 

 were symptoms of a new ideal, held some- 

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