Small Holding Colonies Act 1916
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1916 c. 38 |
| Year | 1916 |
Small Holding Colonies Act, 1916
(6 & 7 Geo. 5.) CHAPTER 38.
An Act to provide for the acquisition and management of land by the State for experimental Small Holding Colonies, and to extend the powers of acquisition and management of land by certain Government Departments under the Development and Road Improvement Funds Act, 1909, and for other purposes connected therewith.
[23rd August 1916]
Be it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
1 Power of Board to acquire land for small holding colonies.
(1) During the continuance of the present war, and a period of twelve months thereafter, the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries (in this Act referred to as ‘the Board’) for the purpose of providing experimental small holding colonies may, with the consent of the Treasury, acquire by agreement any land which, in the opinion of the Board, is suitable for that purpose.
(2) Where the Board, or a landlord at the request of the Board, terminates a tenancy of land by notice to quit, whether given before or after the passing of this Act, with a view to the use of the land or any part thereof by the Board for the provision of small holdings under this Act, the tenant upon quitting shall be entitled to recover from the Board compensation for the loss or expense directly attributable to the quitting which the tenant may unavoidably incur upon or in connection with the sale or removal of his household goods or his implements of husbandry, produce, or farm stock on or used in connection with the land:
Provided that no compensation shall be payable under this subsection:
(a ) unless the tenant has given to the Board a reasonable opportunity of making a valuation of such goods, implements, produce, and stock as aforesaid; or
(b ) if the claim for compensation is not made within three months after the time at which the tenant quits;
and in the event of any difference arising as to any matter under this subsection the difference shall, in default of agreement, be settled by a single arbitrator in accordance with the Agricultural Holdings Act, 1908 :
Provided also that compensation under the Agricultural Holdings Act, 1914 , shall not be payable in any case to which this subsection applies.
(3) The total area of the land for the time being acquired by the Board for the purposes of this section shall not at any time exceed four thousand five hundred acres in England (excluding Monmouthshire), or two thousand acres in Wales and Monmouthshire, or six thousand acres in all, and in the selection of persons to be settled on the land so acquired the Board shall give preference to persons who have served in the naval or military forces of the Crown in the present war.
(4) For the purpose of the acquisition of land by agreement under this Act, the Lands Clauses Acts shall be incorporated with this Act except the provisions of those Acts with respect to the purchase and taking of land otherwise than by agreement and the provisions relating to the sale of superfluous land and the provisions with respect to any lands being common or waste land.
(5) Where a labourer, who has been regularly employed on any land acquired by the Board for the purposes of this Act, proves to the satisfaction of the Board that the effect of the acquisition was to deprive him of his employment, and that there was no employment of an equally beneficial character available to him in the same locality, the Board shall pay to him such compensation as they think just for his loss of employment or for his expenses in moving to another locality, and any sum so paid shall be treated as part of the expenses of the acquisition of the land.
2 Power of Board to promote co-operation in connection with small holdings colonies.
2. With the consent of, and subject to regulations made by, the Treasury, the Board may promote the formation or extension of societies on a co-operative or co-partnership basis, having for their object, or one of their objects, the establishment or profitable working of holdings provided under this Act, whether in relation to the purchase of requisites, the sale of produce, credit banking, or insurance, or otherwise, and may assist any such society by making grants or advances to the society, or guaranteeing advances made to the society, upon such terms and conditions as to rate of interest and repayment or otherwise, and on such security, as the Board think fit, and the Board where they think fit may transfer to any such society the whole or any portion of any colony of small holdings provided under this Act upon such terms and conditions as the Board may think fit:
Provided that the Board shall not make any such transference except upon such terms as provide for the payment of the full value of the land transferred, as determined by the Board with the consent of the Treasury.
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