88 
Small Holdings. 
rent collection, and of management. It also gave power to 
obtain land for letting as common pastures to allotment-holders. 
Boards of Guardians, who were empowered to administer the Act, 
regarded it with coldness, and the 1890 Amending Act was 
therefore passed to delegate to County Councils the powers of 
the Boards of Guardians, if these latter still neglected to exer- 
cise them. It may at once be ascribed to the influence of these 
Acts that the number of allotments, apart from cottages, 
increased from 188G to 1890 by nearly 100,000 ; but, practically, 
no purchase of land for common pasture, as contemplated by the 
Act of 1887, has been made. Of these 100,000 allotments, 
about 3,000 only were actually acquired under the Acts, the 
others being provided by landowners, subject to private agree- 
ment. However much the Acts have contributed to this large 
increase in the number of allotments, that so considerable a 
proportion should have been let by private agreement is rather 
a matter for congratulation than the reverse. Under private 
agreements the tenants inust be, in the majority of cases, better 
off than where land has been compulsorily acquired. In the 
former case the rents are lower, because the landlords generally 
throughout the country have themselves paid all the charges 
incidental to the preparation, fencing, draining, &c., of allot- 
ment land ; whereas, in the cases of compulsory allotments, 
the local committees have had to pay all these necessary charges ; 
and, in addition, rent is further increased to their tenants owing 
to the acreage for boundaries, roads, &c., which is lost in divid- 
ing and rendering the plots accessible to carts. The Acts of 
1887 and 1890 have certainly justified their appearance amongst 
the statutes of the kingdom. 
The Glebe Lands Act of 1888 authorised the sale of glebes, 
either in small portions to the labourers direct, or to the Sanitary 
Authority of each district, for distribution under the provisions 
of the Allotments Act of 1887. This Act, so far as the creation 
of small ownerships is concerned, has proved a complete failure. 
No labourer purchased any portion of the glebes, for there had 
been no provision made for part of the purchase money to 
remain. The sale of the glebes only resulted in further increas- 
ing the dimensions of the adjoining estates. 
The Small Agricultural Holdings Act of 1892 is the most 
comprehensive attempt of all at re-creating the small-proprietary 
system, and alleviating the position of the labourers. It was deter- 
mined by means of State loans at low interest, repayable by 
instalments, to purchase estates, divide them up, and sell or let 
them in small portions. Purchasers were to pay one-fifth of the 
purchase money, one-fifth might be secured at a rent- charge to 
