30 APRIL 1932, Page 14

CROWN COLONIES AT HOME.

This district may be called the headquarters of the official small holdings ; and " the Crown Colony " has cost an immense sum of money which will never be recovered, which indeed is wiped out. The holdings were equipped after the War when all expenses, especially of building, were at a

peak. All this st be acknowledged ; but at the same time the groups of small farms by Holbeach and Sutton Bridge are admirably farmed and look flourishing. The men have suffered much less from depression than bigger farmers,

and the place is so far justifying itself that a number of small farmers are making good and producing a great deal of stuff. It is a pity that co-operative organization is backward and was not encouraged at the beginning ; but in spite of this defect and high expenditure, entailing high rents, the Crown Colony has a flourishing air, even in these days of deep and general depression.