THE FOREST OF DEAN COAL-MINES.
[To THE EDITOR. or Tax " fitrzoneoa."1 Sia,—Mr. Hudson's letter (Spectator, August 30th) appears to assume that the State is no longer responsible for the social condition of the mining population of the Forest of Dean because it has sold to most of the free miners building plots at the best market price and so allowed them to become owners of their cottages. Surely the State cannot, where it is a large landowner, by so easy and profitable a process at the same time rid itself of all its duty to the community and bring into existence the hideous blots on a beautiful country which the mining villages of the Forest are.
Is this all the good that is to come.of land nationalization? Those who preached and preach the advantages and beauties of`land nationalization, I thought, expected more—villages with broad roads, bordered by pleasant shady avenues of trees, wellbuilt cottages in ample gardens, recreation grounds, and possibly a village club house. The reason I pointed to the Forest of Dean is because the State owned all the land practically until it sold these building plots, and theForest villages are the result. Where has the State managed by a bureaucracy done anything? The Crown, as an individual, has. When the land is in private hands there is always a possibility and hope of better things. We have, thanks to private landowners, got some model villages. When land is managed by a bureaucracy it is under the dead hand with a vengeance, and nothing can be deue:—I am, Sir, &e., LAWYER.
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