376 



Holdings in New South Wales. 



Association of Pomeranian agriculturists (;^5o,ooo), similar 

 societies at Halle (;^i 8,000), Pelphin in West Prussia (^^3,750), 

 and Janowitz in Posen (£3,350). Requests for further grants> 

 amounting to about 8 1,000, have also been received from 

 Saxony, East Prussia, Pomerania, &c. 



Attention has recently been called in the public press to 

 the fact that the managers of the Halle store-houses had 

 drawn up regulations, fixing the minimum quantity of grain 

 which could be stored there. It was pointed out that this 

 minimum would exclude the small farmers from participation 

 in the benefits conferred by these store-houses, and the com- 

 ment was made that the money given by the State should be 

 so spent as to place the advantages of the system within the 

 reach of all persons on whose special behalf the subsidies 

 are paid. 



Agricultural Holdings in New South Wales. 



In a work recently issued by the Government Statistician 

 of New South Wales, it is stated that, excluding land held by 

 the tenants of the Crown, there were in the colony, at the end 

 of March, 1896, 60,529 holdings of one acre and upwards 

 in extent. Twenty years previously such holdings numbered 

 36,984. The increase in number amounted during the 

 period to 64 per cent., while the area comprised in the 

 holdings advanced from 13,525,497 to 42,321,926 acres, or 213 

 per cent. The average area of holdings sold gradually 

 rose from 366 acres in 1876 to 770 acres in 1883 ; between 

 1884 and 1892 this average increased very little, while 

 in 1893 the figures took a downward movement, falling 

 to 699 acres in 1896, the lowest average since 1881. This 

 decline in the average area is due to the increase in the 

 number of small holdings, the advance in this respect during 

 the last four years being nearly as great as that made during 

 the previous eight years. Settlement in New South Wales 

 has hitherto tended towards the concentration into com- 

 paratively few hands of the lands sold to a large number 

 of individual selectors, and in the great majority of cases the 



