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 tions have been withdrawn on this account.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 alf 

 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' 

 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- 



