• OCCUPYING OWNERSHIP OF LAND [To the Editor of the
SPECTATOR.] .Sm,—Agricultural land in Great Britain, which has been for SO many years victimized by party politics, should be exclu- sively worked on "non-party lines," so as to produce the maximum supply possible of home-grown food, for the benefit of the vast congested population, the majority being urban residents and non-producers.
The present population is approximately 45,000,000, the rural portion, however, Only amounting to 1,250,000, and actual cultivators about 800,000. Apart from this disparity, the country is practically dependent on imported food, its home- grown variety affording a bare three months' supply. The natural reply by the man in the street to this statement of facts is to urge the repopulation of the rural areas, with cultivators, in order to grow as much as possible of those food products that the exigencies of our very uncertain climate allows—and safeguard our food supply in the event of our losing the freedom of the seas, which nearly caused our down- fall in the late War.
The only possible way to assist the repopulation of the present deserted rural areas is by "Occupying Ownership," since with our necessary free import policy, agricultural land can only adequately support one class, viz. : the peasant pro- prietor or farms worked by the occupier, assisted by his family as regards labour supply. We have an object-lesson of the success of this system, in the case of France—where some 6,000,000 more are engaged on the land than in Great Britain, the majority being absolute owners of their holdings, while unemployment is non-existent.
In order to attract from the urban districts men with a 'knowledge of husbandry (who migrated there since about 1840, at which period Great Britain concentrated on indus- trialism at the expense of agriculture), agricultural , land should preferably be "rate-free." At present there is a most unequal distribution of agricultural rates ; on one farm that I know well, the rural rate in 1922 was 28s. in the pound, as against is. in the pound in 1845, while on a farm in an adjoining parish five miles distant, with the same local market • available, it amounted to 6s. lathe pound only.
Transport charges on agricultuill produce are at present excessive (on account of the higher, but fairer, rate of wages in the sheltered industries), and are a severe handicap tothe honae farther, who has to compete with iinfobrts produced by cheap foreign labour and sea-borne carriage ; There is, conk- quently, a resultant waste of food products, which, if a sub- stantial preferential rebate were available, would find their way to the urban districts at lower prices.
That occupying ownership can be a lucrative proposition the following instance proves :—A relative of mine since 1920 disposed of two mixed farms of 130 acres each, situated in the same parish in South Wales. The tenant of one which he had , rented for over twenty-five years not only purchased it but the other, on which he placed his eldest son, who, with his four younger sons, had constituted his whole labour supply. This is the more remarkable, since the particular locality is in a mining district, the rates at present being 21s. 8d. in the pound, although the farms are situated quite five miles from the nearest railway or mine. If success of this kind can be achieved, handicapped by an assessment of 21s. 8d. in the • pound, one can estimate the advantages that would accrue on holdings rate-free, or subject to a small fixed agricultural rate based on rural conditions and requirements only where the occupier possesses similar advantages as regards labour.
The extension of small occupying ownership, with adequate • financial assistance on the lines so successful in France, is the only way to check the present disastrous migration of the highly skilled agricultural labourer to the urban districts, which is now proceeding at the rate of 50,000 per annum, and accentuating the unemployment problem. Unless this ques- tion is taken in hand soon, the agricultural labourer, as such, will cease to exist, and since his efficiency has only been ,attained by years of practical experience, his complete banish- ment from the land will be an incalculable loss to the nation.— • Huntspill and Sampford Brett, Somerset.
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