THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume L, Issue 12383, 2 December 1909, Page 4

THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND.

— m^ • ■ - Ax unanswerable case is made out by Mr. J. E. Barker, in what may be called the leading article of the "Nineteenth Century," in favour of a radical reform of tho land system of the Mother Country, which stands alone in this respect, that while enjoying a democratic form of government it clings to a feudal system of administering its ter-

ritorial estates. Prussia was in a pre-

cisely similar situation, but rather wors2, ft century ago, when France had

deprived her of half.her entire territory and of half its.inhabitants. But Stein, a- great and courageous; statesman, arosa^. who, on the 9th of October, 1897, abolished the feudal system, and with it tho personal of, .the cultivators of the.spi) \ippn the owners of it. Up to that,time .the .peasants were serfs. To-day they are ,freeholders, .and. their number.is. steadily increas,ing; whereas inGreat.Jßrita.inthe agricultural labourers, being denied 7 the .opportunity of acquiring, a, f opt. of land they.can 'call their, own, xi^e i rapidly , dwindling* in numbers.. They., either drift away to the large towns, or the ypunger and moro energetic. pf . tl^em. emigrate! to Canada,. The terrible shrinking in the number of - men of this class, who: are often spoken of,, and inqt incorrectly, as the bone.and sjnew of the, Nation, will bo best exhibited by the following figures:—• ' j 1851. 1901. : In England and Wales 1,097,8C0 583,800 In Scotland 140,200 73,800 In Irelard ... ... ... 850,103 212,200 In United Kingdom ... 2,088,100 869,800 This comparison shows, as Mr. Barker points out, that tha old agricultural system "has absolutely broken down, and that the re-creation of our rural industries will ba past praying for unless the problem of rural labour is solved quickly." In fact, he makes the startling statement, that " we may soon have to allow our agricultural land to become a desert through lack of labour" ; whereas it would be quite practicable, Mr. Barker contends, to convert a million landless agricultural labourers into successful and prosperous freeholders by

the assistance of land settlement banks, or of co-operativg banks established to deal specially with these matters. One of tho indirect results of the reform advocated would be, it is added, a riss in the value of agricultural land; a further fall in which, it is alleged, would-, lead to general bankruptcy on the part of numbers of land owners in embarrassed circumstances.