578 Operation of Small Holdings Act. [oct., 



done to tenant farmers, while the establishment among them 

 of sturdy and industrious small holders who will increase 

 the supply of labour in the locality cannot but be a real 

 benefit to all concerned. 



The Report gives an account of the procedure adopted for 

 ascertaining the demand for holdings, and it is mentioned 

 that the applicants have been drawn from almost every class 

 of the rural population. Out of the 13,202 approved appli- 

 cants about 4,470, or nearly 34 per cent., are agricultural 

 labourers. The demand in most cases is not for holdings 

 to which the tenant will devote his whole time and from 

 which he will obtain his whole livelihood. An agricultural 

 labourer has little spare time for the cultivation of more than 

 a small allotment, and unless he has saved enough money to 

 be able to take a holding of thirty or forty acres he would 

 not as a rule be justified in giving up his daily work. Ex- 

 perience has shown that a living cannot be made easily from 

 a smaller holding than thirty acres, unless it is devoted to 

 market gardening, fruit growing, or to some special form of 

 cultivation, and in those cases the capital required is con- 

 siderably more per acre than in the case of an ordinary 

 agricultural holding. 



A considerable number of the applicants have withdrawn 

 their applications on realising that councils will be unable 

 to let small quantities of accommodation land at the same 

 rent as is paid by farmers for large farms, and many appli- 

 cants who have applied for particular pieces of land decline 

 to take any other land if that cannot be obtained. 



The information obtained shows, however, that the demand 

 already disclosed is only a part of that which actually exists. 

 Many men are sceptical as to the bond-fides of the Act, and 

 are deferring their applications until they see how their 

 friends and neighbours fare, and as soon as a certain number 

 of tenants have been successfully established on their hold- 

 ings there will no doubt be a large additional crop of applica- 

 tions. 



In some parts of the country the Commissioners report that 

 there is undoubtedly a widespread fear lest the fact of appli- 

 cation having been made for land should be resented by their 

 employers and the applicants should be turned out of their 



