191 1.] Administration of the Small Holdings Act. 121 
agreed to be acquired was 8,168 and seven Associations, and 
the quantity they require is 127,256 acres, but it seems clear 
that these figures are considerably in excess of the genuine 
outstanding demand. It has been found that a considerable 
number of the applicants who had been provisionally 
approved in the first instance are inclined to withdraw when- 
a definite offer of land is made to them, and others on further 
investigation have had to be rejected as unsuitable. As was 
pointed out in the previous report, the problem before the 
Councils has been to fit particular men to particular land, 
and very few of the applicants are willing to move from their 
immediate neighbourhood. In many cases also the rents 
which Councils are bound to ask to recoup their outlay on the 
acquisition and adaptation of the land are higher than the 
applicants expected or are willing to pay, and many applica- 
tions have been withdrawn on this account. A considerable 
number of applicants have obtained holdings from private 
landowners. 
After discussing the action taken in different districts,- and 
other matters arising in connection with the Acts, the Small 
Holdings Commissioners observe that: "The provision of 
over 9,000 small holdings through the instrumentality of the- 
Act in three years is a result which reflects great credit on the 
various Councils concerned. With very few exceptions they 
have lost no opportunity of providing for the needs of all' 
suitable applicants, and we are satisfied that in the great 
majority of counties the work could not have been done more- 
quickly without serious risk of disaster. The truth is that 
the demand for small holdings has been so large that it would 
have been impossible to have satisfied the whole of it in two or 
three years, and in view of the fact that negotiations for the 
acquisition of land necessarily occupy a- considerable time 
that a great deal of land which could have been acquired is 
either unsuitable or too expensive, and that as a rule the land 1 
has had to be acquired in those localities where there is most 
competition for it, the results achieved cannot be regarded as 
anything but satisfactory. It is inevitable that some of the 
applicants should consider that there has been unreasonable 
delay, but that this is in most cases not the fault of the 
Councils is shown by the fact that in those counties where 
