SMALL HOLDINGS BILL.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 127, 29 May 1907, Page 5

SMALL HOLDINGS BILL.

IMPORTANT MEASURE. EMPOWERS COUNTY COUNCILS. (By Cable.—Press Association.—Copyright.) (Received 7.30 a.m.) LONDON, May 28. Mr Lewis Hareourt, First Commissioner of Works, and now a member of the Ministry, has introduced a bill to extend, eneapen and accelerate the machinery for providing small holdings and allotments in England and Wales. Under this measure County Councils are empowered to acquire land compulsorily by purchase or lease, and to sublet such land as allotments or small holdings, creating a class of municipal occupiers. A commissioner under the Board of Agriculture is empowered to act when necessjary and where the local authorities fail. The purchasing or selling price is to be fixed by arbitration and local loans are to be repayable in SO years. The treasury is to contribute £100,080 in tne first year. The bill also lays down that small holdings are not to exceed 50 acres, while allotments will be increased _l'rom one acre to five. Mr Hareourt said the bill would not set up dual ownership nor confer on the tenantry the power to sell their rights. He did not believe that compulsion would be widely resorted to. He had been long opposed to compulsory hiring. Mr Jesse Collings said he thought it was a mistake to keep small holders in the position of tenants. The bill was read a first time.