LABOURERS' ALLOTMENTS.
THERE is perhaps no more gloomy or depressing sight to be met with in rural England than a row of cottages opening in front straight on to the dusty high-road, and cut off behind by the fence of the adjoining field. A cottage without a bit of garden-ground seems almost a contradic- tion in terms. That such a eight is the rule in England, no one with eyes to see could possibly affirm. It is, indeed, thanks to the voluntary work of the English landlords, decidedly the exception. Nevertheless, it must be ad- mitted that there are still too many labourers without gardens to their houses, and without even a plot of land to till at a distance. People who know the English country chiefly from stopping in the house of the Squire, wonder how this can be. They know that their landlord-friend—and, indeed, every landlord they have ever heard of—always either lets his cottages with gardens, or else provides allotments for the labourers ; and they wonder why the statistics show tha there are over 200,000 labourers without a piece of ground of any sort in which to grow vegetables for their families, or from which to get that enjoyment and comfort that
every one knows the labourer prizes so much. They forget that there are plenty of parishes where a quite different state of things prevails. Sometimes there is no resident squire at all. Sometimes the land is held by a distant corporation. Again, it is often subdivided between different small owners, none of whom considers himself personally responsible for the well-being of the labourers of the parish. They forget, too, that an enormous number of cottages in the country have been built on odd strips of ground by small contractors as a specula- tion, while others are held by various small property-holders as an investment. Suppose a particularly badly built cottage or row of cottages is to be sold, the only likely purchaser is a farmer or publican with a little money to invest. The neighbouring landlord will not buy, because for him to buy means a positive loss. He could not let the cottages in a ruinous, perhaps unhealthy condition, and so buying would entail rebuilding, and rebuilding is never profitable. Thus it happens that all over England an immense quantity of cottage property is in the hands, not of the landlord class, but of small capitalists. These cottages, run up cheaply on narrow pieces and odd corners of ground, are almost invariably without gardens. The labourers who live in them may be deserving men enough ; but the landlord of the parish does not feel to them as he does towards one of his own tenants, and so in no way considers himself bound to " find " them—as the phrase goes—a bit of garden. To restate our point, the cottagers of the ordinary resident country gentle- man have no difficulty in getting gardens and allotments ; but the labourers who are unfortunate enough to live in cottages owned by absentees, by corporations, or by the small owners of rural house-property, are almost always unable to obtain what they want in the way of a plot of ground to work in.
Once admit that, on the one hand, it is very important for the health, the happiness, and the sobriety of the labourer to have such a piece of ground, that it will increase his interest and skill in agriculture, educate him for his work on the farm, and make him more contented and less inclined to crowd into the towns ; and on the other, that a very great many labourers are at present unable to obtain allotments ; and it becomes perfectly right and proper that Parliament should attempt to find a remedy for the evil. We are inclined to think that the Labourers' Allotments Bill, now in the Committee stage in the House of Commons, meets a very difficult legislative problem in a fair and reasonable manner. If the mere demand of the labourers for allotments has in many instances failed, what will be the beet local authority in which to place the machinery for obtaining them l This was the problem before the framers of the Bill. We are half-inclined to agree with Mr. Chaplin in thinking that, for many reasons, the parish would have been the best body. The difficulties in the way of such a plan were, however, very great. In the first place, the parish has no executive body except the vestry, which is obviously far too loosely organised for the purposes of the Act. A Parish Board must, therefore, have been set up, and this would have involved the discussion of the most difficult and delicate problems. Besides, the extreme dis- similarity of the parishes in size and population make it very difficult to draft a general measure that would suit great and small. Our readers will remember that under the Public Health Act, 1875, all England and Wales is divided under Urban and Rural Sanitary Authorities. In towns, this body is the Town Council ; in Local Government areas, the Local Board ; and in rural districts, the Board of Guardians. The Government has decided to select the Local Sanitary Authority as the body empowered to carry out the Act. Where it shall appear to them that allotments cannot in some particular part of their district be obtained at a reasonable rent by voluntary action, they are empowered to hire or purchase land for the purpose of providing such allotments. Before, however, entering upon this enterprise, they are to satisfy them- selves that the rates will not be burdened thereby,—i.e., that they will be able to relet the ground without loss. The allotments to be let out by them are not to be granted in larger plots than one acre. In cases where the Local Sanitary Authority cannot, after negotiation, obtain land for allotments in a place where it considers them needed, it is able to compel, under certain very carefully guarded pro- visions, the sale of the land required. In explaining these provisions, Mr. Ritchie, the President of the Local Government Board, has enabled us to catch a glimpse of the great Local Government scheme of next year. In every county there will be a body armed with subordinate legislative powers. On the table of this body the Local Sanitary Authority will, when it contemplates an act of compulsion, lay something in the nature of a Provisional Order, which, unless challenged and defeated, will after a lapse of a certain time take effect. Since, how- ever, this plan cannot operate till the new Local Government bodies in the counties are formed, intermediate machinery is needed. It is proposed, therefore, in the meantime, to give to Quarter-Sessions, when it considers compulsion necessary, the power to require the Local Government Board to introduce a Bill into Parliament giving the effect of law to a Provisional Order of the kind wanted. It is laid down expressly in the Act that no land must in any ease be taken compulsorily in a manner inconvenient to the landowner, nor =et any park, garden, or pleasure-ground, or land adjoining a house and affecting its comfort or appearance, be acquired in this way. The other chief safeguards of the Act are the requirements that the Local Sanitary Authority shall appoint a committee of ratepayers to manage the allotments, and that no buildings shall be erected on the plote,—a provision, it may be remarked, which must evidently be modified in regard to tool-houses and pig-sties.
Without wishing to withdraw anything we have said on previous occasions as to our distrust of the principle of compul- sion, we must admit that in the present measure a good deal can be said in favour of its use. Compulsion does not occupy the forefront of the Bill. It is not made the immediate weapon of any aggrieved labourer, nor is it allowed in the present scheme to throw any burden on the rates. To sanction a crude scheme by which a body of labourers, however well-intentioned, could make themselves comfortable by imposing an indefinite burden on the ratepayers, is to us as intolerable as ever. To acquire land compulsorily as a last resort, under a very carefully drawn series of safeguards, is certainly not to be regarded in any- thing like the same light. To have the principle of com- pulsion latent in the Bill, it must be remembered, has some very great advantages. In the first place, it will get over the difficulties as to sale which might very likely occur in the case of persons holding land in fiduciary capacities. Trustees, for in- stance, hold a field which is just the piece of land suitable for allotments, and which the Local Sanitary Authority request them to sell. The trustees are ignorant and timid, and are advised by an over-cautions solicitor, who says that they must be very careful that by consenting to this new-fangled scheme they do not dispose of the property in some way injurious to their trust. On the principle of letting well alone, they would probably refuse the alarming offer. If, however, they could be ulti- mately compelled to sell, they would at once feel justified in parting with the land. There is, besides, a still stronger argu- ment in favour of compulsion as a reserved power which, though very little understood by the public at large, is none the less real. It was, we notice, recognised as substantial in the recent debates in the House. The farmers, as a class, are extremely jealous of the labourers obtaining allotments. As things now stand, some farmer or other holds the piece of land out of which new allot- ments are to be carved. If the landlord proposes to take this land away, the farmer at once discovers that it is the only piece of ground worth having on his farm, and that if it is taken from him the whole question of his rent will have to be gone into afresh. In these days, farmers, not landlords, have the whip-hand, and the landlord would therefore be obliged to
say no more about the new allotment-ground. But if the landlord can be compelled to give a piece of land, the farmer will be obliged to submit to the inevitable, and give up the few acres wanted for the labourers' gardens. We feel con
vinced that the Government have been very wise in extend- ing their Act to towns. The Town Councils will often, we
believe, avail themselves of the Act, and with the best results to our town populations. It is impossible to overestimate the moral and physical benefit of a garden-plot to a factory hand.
In the thickly populated areas, in mining and manufacturing
districts administered by Local Boards, we have also little doubt but that the Bill will be very useful. In such places
allotments are specially valued, and yet—to a great extent because such places have often no resident landlords—they are generally very badly off for allotments. We trust, then, that the Bill will get through the Howse of Commons in a workable shape, for we sincerely believe that it may bring a great deal of comfort to the English labouring classes.
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