Mr. Lloyd George continued his land campaign at Middles- brough
on Saturday, where he addressed two meetings on urban land reform. After some preliminary gibes at his critics, Mr. Lloyd George deprecated strongly any distinction being drawn between the urban and rural policy of the Government ; there was only one land policy, though the towns had special grievances of their own. The first step to free the municipalities from the " ring of impenetrable greed " which checked urban improvement was to give them power to acquire land by easy, expeditious, and cheap methods of procedure at the real market value and not at an extravagant price. As it was, when they wanted land for necessary purposes—water- works, housing, or recreation—they had to pay exorbitant prices. The existing compulsory machinery was enormously expensive, and the legal costs were often far greater than the purchase-money.
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