462 
Allotments and Small Holdings. 
ing arable area would be required ; or, if the area devoted to 
other rotation crops were to continue to bear about the same 
relation to that under wheat as in recent years the total arable area 
would have to be increased nearly three-fold, making in all much 
more than our present total arable and permanent grass areas put 
together ! Or, if the wheat were to be grown on a larger pro- 
portion of the existing arable area, it could obviously only be by 
the exclusion of the growth of other grain crops and stock foods, 
which would then in their turn have to be imported in larger 
quantities ; or our stock must be reduced, and our imports of 
live animals and meat very much increased. 
The above considerations clearly show the absurdity of the 
supposition that, even with our present population, to say 
nothing of continued increase, and with proportionally very 
little possible increase in our own total food-producing area, 
there is any hope that our imports, at any rate of staple articles 
of food, can be at all materially reduced. Indeed, when it is 
considered how rapidly the population and the requirements for 
its maintenance increase, whilst the aggregate home production 
(though the produce per acre is greater than in any other country 
in the world) can increase but little, there can be no hesitation 
in deciding that, in spite of whatever may be done to increase 
the produce of the land, at any rate in smaller articles, by the 
establishment of small holdings or by any other means, the only 
alternatives are increased emigration, or increased imports of 
the staple foods of the people. The latter alternative, of course, 
involves the assumption that if the population remaining at 
home continues to increase as heretofore, sufficient wages could 
still be earned by the increased numbers for the purchase of 
the foreign food required. 
Although to establish a large number of the population on 
the land in small holdings would not only be very costly, but 
would only to a limited extent, and under favourable conditions, 
be attended with success, it is nevertheless very desirable that 
the sale and purchase of land should be rendered as cheap and 
easy as possible. Further, it would doubtless be for the benefit 
of the country, that the owner of landed property should be abso- 
lute owner, with power to sell, or lease, or will it, to whomsoever 
he pleases, and that his successor should have the same power 
as himself. It would, in fact, be desirable to remove all restric- 
tions to the transfer of land, and to its acquirement on equitable 
terms, so that there should be no artificial obstacles in the way 
of the small holder, who would then succeed if the conditions 
were suitable, but would not if they were otherwise. It would, 
at the same time, be desirable that those who vote the land and 
