small-holdinctS and the small-holder. 



297 



congested areas of our large cities and partly to lands across the seas. 

 This depletion of the rural population has gone on until some districts 

 are now practically destitute of young able-bodied men, most who 

 remain being either elderly and slow or in some way deficient. The 

 seriousness of such a state of things is apparent to everyone who gives 

 it consideration, matters having come to such a pass that unless some 

 efficient means is taken not only to check but to reverse the migration, 

 England will soon be in serious danger of losing her position amongst 

 the great nations. The people of the British Isles have to hold their 

 own against far greater populations, and this cannot continue to be 

 accomplished if matters are allowed to continue drifting along in the 

 present way. We shall soon be forced to recognize the fact that the 

 real strength of a country does not rest in huge armaments but in the 

 bone and muscle, the brain and judgment, and the happiness and con- 

 tentment of the mass of the common people. 



I think I have now made it clear that the problem of how to 

 increase the rural population is urgent for solution. The Small- 

 holdings Act was no doubt intended as a step in this direction, but I 

 submit that its authors have not realized all or even the most im- 

 portant of the facts of the situation. A more or less unsatisfactory 

 attempt is being made to provide access to the land, but even if access 

 were made easy, provision of the bare land is totally inadequate to 

 the occasion. Before, however, I place before you my views of what 

 is necessary, it will be useful to inquire a little further into the causes 

 of the rural exodus. 



Many and varied reasons have been advanced to account for the 

 migration from country districts. The attraction of higher wages in 

 the towns doubtless has been and still is a potent factor; bad housing 

 conditions in country districts has played its evil part ; the hopeless 

 outlook which practically condemns the labourer to wages which are a 

 mere pittance during his best years, with the probability of ending his 

 days as a pauper, is of itself enough to cause every man of independent 

 spirit to seize the first opportunity offering better fortune elsewhere. 

 Each of these influences has certainly much to answer for, but judg- 

 ing from an experience of many years spent in direct contact with 

 workers on the land, I am convinced that the most active influence of 

 all in causing the rural population to be dissatisfied with their sur- 

 roundings is the lonely and mentally barren existence to which under 

 existing circumstances they are condemned. 



Before the advent of railways and compulsory elementary education 

 they did not and could not imagine how much more of interest life 

 contained than the monotonous daily round they were accustomed to, 

 but with the ability to read and the opportunity of cheap excursions 

 on holidays their ideas expanded — they became aware of the existence 

 of a larger world, fuller of interest and excitement than anything they 

 had previously dreamt of — and having gained such knowledge and con- 

 trasted their own drab mode of life with the possibilities of change and 

 improvement lying within their reach, the result was inevitable. 



