SMALL HOLDINGS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 167, 2 December 1912, Page 4

SMALL HOLDINGS.

Advocates of "back-to-the-land,' deploring the rural depopulation reported in some parts of New Zealand, will turn with interest to Servia, which has been aptly described as the peasant State of Europe. The Serb is a man of primitive emotions and simple tastes, for whom town life seems to have little or no attraction. With the exception ol Belgrade, there are few towns in Servia worthy of the name. Practically the whole of the population dwells on the land, husbandry and pig-rearing 'being the staple industries. A good deal of the livelihood of the Servian farmer depends on the export of pigs, chiefly to Austria-Hungary; and the latter state uses the trade as a means of penalising the Serbs. According to Mr. Foster Fraser, when the Austro-Hungarian Government wishes to put on the screw, it discovers swine fever in the Serb pigs and prohibits their importation. No wonder that land-locked Servia strives for a seaport of her own. A system of peasant proprietorship prevails, and to this, and the frugality and industry of the people, must be ascribed the fact that Servia has practically no poor. Every grown man in Servia can claim live acres of land from the Government, and this hind aiul its produce are exempt from all claim for dcbc. The poorest man in Servia, therefore, has always five acres of land to his credit.