GO THE RURAL PROBLEM 



in farmers 9 cottages are afraid of losing their work and 

 home if known to be applicants for small holdings. The 

 provision of cottages is optional, not compulsory. Councils 

 often refuse to erect cottages or buildings and offer appli- 

 cants land two or three miles away from their home. 



Roughly speaking, there are two classes of men who 

 require small holdings — the man who has hardly any 

 capital and who wishes at first only one or two acres which 

 he can work at odd times while continuing as a wage-earner, 

 and the man who has enough capital to start straight away 

 and make his living off the land. There are plenty of 

 these men, but at present they cannot get what they want. 

 The Act must be strengthened, and the fundamental reform 

 is that when the Government valuation is complete it must 

 be made public, and be the basis for leasing and buying land 

 by public bodies, or by the Land Commission above proposed. 

 Innumerable instances could be given of the high price 

 paid by county councils for land, which involved a high 

 rent and consequent high rates for the tenant. In cases 

 where compulsory powers have been taken to acquire land 

 the price fixed by the Arbitrator has frequently been so 

 high that the council has decided to drop negotiations. 

 The cost of these proceedings falls on the ratepayers, and 

 naturally local boards hesitate about embarking on a course 

 which may mean much legal and other expense and no 

 land. With compulsory powers to purchase at the valuation 

 price this obstacle would be removed. 



Other amendments of the existing legislation dealing with 

 this question are necessary if the Acts are to be properly 

 worked. The chief of these are in connection with the 

 compensation of the outgoing tenant. It is obvious that he 

 should be put to no loss in the matter ; and yet some part 

 of the payment to him (for loss of prospective profits, cost, 

 of removal, etc.) may be of no value at all to the incoming 

 tenant, and he should not be burdened with it in the form 

 of extra rent. All such expenditure should be thrown on 

 the small holdings account, as some of it is at present. The 

 same argument applies to the sinking fund. There is no 

 justice in making small holders pay for securing a freehold 

 in perpetuity to the county council. 



