1910.] Report on Small Holdings and Allotments. 303 



let the land to their members, and 1,648 applicants had been 

 provided with over 20,000 acres by private landowners direct, 

 mainly through the instrumentality of the Councils. The 

 land which has been acquired but not yet allotted will prob- 

 ably provide for another 2,000 applicants, so that assuming 

 that the Associations have sublet their land to not fewer than 

 200 tenants, which is a moderate estimate, it will be seen that 

 the Act has resulted in the provision of land for approxi- 

 mately 6,600 applicants in two years. 



During 1909 3,598 fresh applications were received by 

 County Councils for 63,523 acres, bringing the total number 

 of applicants since the Act came into operation up to 26,883, 

 and the total quantity of land applied for up to 437,124 acres. 

 Of these applicants 15,191 had been provisionally approved 

 for 216,863 acres up to the end of 1909. 



After describing the steps taken during 1909 in adminis- 

 tering the Act, the Commissioners make the following 

 observations as to the progress which has been made in 

 providing small holdings : — 



"The experience of the two years during which the Act 

 has been in operation is sufficient to justify us in saying that 

 there is undoubtedly in most parts of the country a wide- 

 spread demand for small holdings from men, many of whom 

 are thoroughly well qualified by knowledge and experience, 

 and who have sufficient capital to work them profitably. It 

 is true that hopes have sometimes been encouraged which 

 have proved impossible of realisation, but the majority of 

 the applicants now understand that they cannot expect, as 

 a matter of course, to have the particular land they have set 

 their hearts on, and that they will, as a rule, have to pay 

 more rent per acre than is commonly charged for large farms. 

 We regard the progress that has been made by County 

 Councils in satisfying the genuine demand as on the whole 

 very satisfactory, and we think that in the great majority 

 of cases there is no justification whatever for the view that 

 hostility or apathy exists on the part of those responsible 

 for the administration of the Act. 



"We believe also that the great majority of the schemes 

 which are now in working order will prove successful, and 

 that, although the cultivation of land is not the gold mine 

 that is sometimes supposed, the tenants of the small holdings 



