SMALL HOLDINGS 198 



God 1 have become an accomplished fact, and 

 the amount of happiness which can be con- 

 ferred by five shillings a week may indicate to 

 the political student the economic conditions 

 under which the recipients must have fought 

 their life-struggle of threescore years and 

 ten. If only our land legislation could have 

 kept pace with the Pensions Act ! But our 

 measure of land reform must, alas, to some 

 extent be regarded as a comparative failure. 

 It has done something ; in comparison with 

 former measures of the kind it has achieved 

 a very great deal ; but its results have hither- 

 to fallen far short of the level demanded by 

 reasonable enthusiasm and long delayed hopes. 



Of the total number of 23,122 " approved 

 applicants " since the Act came into opera- 

 tion, only 12,192 have been actually placed 

 on the land by the County Councils in five 

 years ! Hundreds of the original applicants 

 " dropped off " the list from sheer weariness 

 and disgust ; at the end of 1911 there were 

 8,548 individuals and eight associations still 

 unsatisfied, and the number at the close of 

 1912 was practically the same (8,508). 



Much was expected from the Small Holdings 

 Act of 1908. It was of course fairly recognized 

 that the non-inclusion of the County Councils 

 in the administration of the measure would 



