SOME OTHER REMEDIES 233 



State-acquired land may be either paid in 

 ordinary and perpetual Government bonds, or 

 in annuities terminable after a certain period. 

 In the former case it has been doubted whether 

 on the whole the benefit secured to the com- 

 munity would be worth the trouble and irri- 

 tation occasioned by its acquisition. In 

 other words, could the State make the land 

 pay more than sufficient to meet the payment 

 of interest on its land-bonds ? To nationalize 

 land, minerals or railways in the early days of 

 a young country is an obvious and lucrative 

 policy, but the case assumes a very different 

 complexion when a similar attempt is made 

 in the case of a country like Great Britain, 

 where vast enterprises and resources have for 

 many generations been permitted to exist as 

 the property of individual citizens. Never- 

 theless it may be the case that even under the 

 liability of providing a fair return for vested 

 interests the public ownership of an English 

 soil would well repay the bold statesmanship 

 which succeeded in carrying such a policy to 

 a successful issue. The economic waste of our 

 agricultural resources, which at present strikes 

 every thoughtful foreigner, would necessarily 

 be impossible under State ownership directly 

 controlled by public opinion. No one can 

 rejoice more sincerely than the present writer 



