Scottish Land Bill.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVI, Issue 43088, 4 May 1907, Page 3

Scottish Land Bill.

TO OUST HOLDERS OF LAND,

The British Government recently introluced an amazing Land Bill for Scotland, which, if adopted, would lead to a i evolution inj the conditions of British land tenure. It is proposed to take the land from the control of the present owners and holders, and split it into small allotments f<<r distribution among the agricultural labouring class Every holding of more than 150 acres is to oe liable to compulsory sub-division mder the Bill. r*

This principle is, in effect, the manciple cf land division introduced inriS France at the time of the French Revo .ution. For the present the Government’s imazing proposals relate only to Scotland. Later it is intended to apply them to England and Wales. Sir Walter Foster unwittingly gave away the Government casJin a speech at the N ational Liberal Csub the other night, when he said that the land question would make a good ground of attack on the House of Lords. “We are not to consider this as a Scotch Bill at all,” said Mr Balfour. “The principles emtodied in it, if accepted by this House, will necessarily extend to the whole island, and will involve an enormous increase over the £65,000 which the Government proposes to apply to the working of this Act in Scotland.