Il8 GREAT BRITAIN ANi:» IREI^AND - MISCEl,IyANEOUS 



ation, but argue that it would be impossible for the State or local authori- 

 ties to purchase sufficient land within any reasonable period to give secur- 

 ity of tenure to more than a small proportion of the agricultural tenants 

 of England and Wales. They further believe that the establishment of 

 some judicial body to fix fair rents and fair prices of land would bean indis- 

 pensable preUminary to any great extension of the pohcy of public owner- 

 ship. They, therefore, advocate the establishment for England and Wales 

 of a Ivand Court, which, in addition to giving security of tenure and fixing 

 fair rents, should also have power to decide the question of compensation 

 at the close of a tenancy'. 



It is recommended that no landowner should be allowed to turn a 

 farmer out of his holding except with the consent of the Court, and that the 

 farmer's security of tenure should not be affected by the sale of the estate. 

 The present legal power of the landowner to raise the rent upon a tenant's 

 own improvements should also, it is urged, be kept in check by the ac- 

 tion of the proposed Court in fixing rents. 



An important function would be assigned to the Land Court in connec- 

 tion with the proposals to fix a minimum wage for agrictiltural labourers. 

 It is urged that the landowner should in justice bear a fair share in the ad- 

 ditional burden of higher wages and that the payment of that share 

 cannot be ensured nor its amount satisfactorily determined except by a 

 Ivand Court which, in fixing fair rents, would take into consideration the 

 increased wages bill, 



(f) Local Taxation. 



In regard to the question of local taxation the Committee declare 

 that the building of cottages, the establishment of small holdings, the bet- 

 ter equipment of farms and all higher or intensive cultivation are penal- 

 ised by the present system, whereby any improvement in the letting value 

 of a property results in an increase of the valuation upon which the local 

 rates are assessed. For the Committee's recommendations on this question 

 we must look to the Second Volume of their Report (" The Land. Vol. 2. 

 Urban. ") in which the rating problem is dealt with in relation both to 

 urban and rural land. In this it is proposed that the grants-in-aid from 

 the Imperial Exchequer for local services should be largely increased ; that 

 a portion of the local taxation should be assessed on the site value of the 

 land instead of 011 the total value of the property, and, further, that the site 

 value of agricultural land should be calculated, for purposes of assessment, 

 at such a fraction of its actual value as would keep th^ total contri- 

 bution from agricultural land proportionately the same in relation to the 

 other hereditaments as it was before the change. 



§ 2. The government's proposai^s. 



Let us now see to what extent the Liberal Government have adopted 

 the recommendations of the Land Enquiry Committee, and what are the pro- 

 posals which they have put forward. These have not yet been embodied 



