Ill' 



ItOYAl. <-<>MMI>l'iN OS AGRICULTUUK. 



3 StpUmktr, 1919.] 



SIR RICHARD WINFKKY, M.P. 



[Continued. 



3 pr rant, on 3 5*., and now ho can get :> |-r 

 n 1 1. It all il.-j : <U what he is going to do 

 with it. 



8616. Then you express a general opinion that the 

 increased value- of agricultural land is an infallible 

 >. -I think were your words of the general pros- 

 perity of agriculture. Do not you th.uk ihiTu are 

 many other r< ntributory cause*;* Yea; I du not say 

 " causes "; I say this is an infallible index; I do not 

 say it is a cause. Causes of course are very dif- 

 ferent; but I say it is an infallible sign, if you like, 

 or index. 



8619. These large prices given by farmers are in- 

 duced or caused by competition by the County 

 Council for one reason, and by land synd cates enter- 

 ing in for another reason, arc not they:' Not at all. 

 On the other hand, here are fome big farmers ready 

 i! to tin- County Council. In Lincolnshire. 

 where we are talking about, there are four cases of 

 farmers who have offered their farms to the County 

 Council voluntarily, not by compulsion. Here is 

 Mr. H. 1'. Carter who offers a farm at Holbeach at 

 i.'-'.'l the acre. There is another, Mr. Porter, who 

 offers his farm t 55 an acre. It says here: " Mr. 

 Porter declined to accept less than 55 the acre." 

 That is in this very Deeping district, the very next 

 farm to the farm of Lord Lincolnshire's. Then Mr. 

 George Thompson offers his farm at 90 the acre. 

 Here are these men who have been farming this land, 

 and they ought to know the value of it. They have 

 been making money these last four years, and they 

 are prepared to sell. 



8690. That may be a special instance; but are not 

 County Councils going into the auction room and 

 bidding for land? Yes, they are. 



8621. That in itself would tend to put up the 

 price? You see here where they do not go into the 

 auction room, they are asked very heavy prices. The 

 last case is Mr. Sidney Worth, who asks 63 the acre. 

 In all those cases it was proved to the Board of Agri- 

 culture, who have the facts, that those farmers bought 

 those farms some time before the war at about ii 

 the acre less than they are now asking. 



8622. I agree ; but I put it to you that the price 

 of land must be affected by the competition of tin- 

 County Council, and by those land speculators coming 

 in? Yes, I think it is; I quite agree to that. 



8623. It must be soP But it is not correct to say 

 that because you use compulsory powers, you naturally 

 go and give r.n excessive price. These excessive prices 

 are being asked here in the open market without 

 auctions at all. 



8624. I will ask you this question: Would you, as 

 Chairman of the Lincolnshire and Norfolk Associa- 

 tion, now sanction the acquisition of land for small- 

 holders at anything up to 100 the acre, the sort of 

 price you intimated? No. That is the reason I 

 reluctantly voted against the Third Reading of the 

 Land Acquisition Bill. We could not get it altered 

 in Committee ; and I was one of those few, I am 

 afraid but I do not think I shall ever regret the vote. 

 and it is the only vote I have ever giv n against this 

 Coalition Government but I went in o the Lobby 

 against that Land Acquisition Bill, because I felt we 

 were going to put ourselves into considerable difficul- 

 ties. 



8625. Yoa would consider it rash to give anything 

 like those prices? Yes, I do. 



8636. And therefore you would say that the willing- 

 nem of tho farmer to give such price, 1 * does not alto- 

 gether depend on his taking a very cheerful view 

 of tho prospects of agriculture? Of course, if a man 

 is spending his own money he does as he likes ; and 

 if he has made money out of farming, and he likes 

 to go and buy a third or fourth farm, if ho does 

 drop a bit of money over it it does not put him in 

 a difficulty ; but it is a very different thing for tho 

 Statct to buy land at that price. 



8627. I just want to ask you about the yield of 

 potatoes last year. You put them at 6 tons per 

 acre, and a value of 8 per ton? Yes, that is what 

 h- made in April. 



8638. That i* Lincolnshire land? Yes. 



8039. Last year the Government took over tho whole 

 crop at a pri"n varying between 6 and 8 a ton, 

 did not they? I never quite understood what the 



Government did do with regard to potatoes. All I 

 KM..U is that it has cost tho nation a million of 

 money . I In \ made a nice muddle of it, I am afraid. 



8630. The value is put in your estimate at 8. Have 

 you any opinion of what the price of potatoes would 



have been last year but for tho li<-\< TII MI having 



undertaken to take tho crop:' 1 should think it 

 might have got up to 10 a ton. 



8631. You do not think they would have fallen 

 to as low as 3 or 4? No, 1 think they would have 

 gone up rather than down. 



8632. That is not the general opinion? If they 

 could have got them away. You see, there was a 

 great shortage of trucks to get them away. 



8633. Then do you think the price this year is going 

 to bo anything like 8? I travelled last night with 

 a man who came up from Spalding Market yesterday, 

 and ho told me they were giving 10 a ton for 



potatoes in Spalding yesterday. That is for Second 



Karliee. 



i. There were, some questions asked by Mr. Lang- 

 ford which were answered by you. and I think 

 rather agreed with him that the landlords were taking 

 advantage of the pi.--ent time to put up their rents 

 unfairly? No. If that was tho interpretation that 

 was placed upon it, I do not wish to have that inter- 

 pretation put upon it. Mr. Langford may have put 

 that question to me; but I do not think there has 

 been anything really unfair with regard to the 

 landlords putting up the rents. If I had been a 

 landlord, I should have put up my rent a bit. In 

 fact I have in some cases where I k'new it was under 

 rented, and I think quite fairly too. 



8C35. Do you remember the period between 1879 and 

 1890? I can go back to 1868. I was then 10 years 

 of age. 



8636. I did not like to ask you that question? 

 It was the best year's farming my father ever had 

 in 1868. 



8637. A reverse took place in those years? Then 

 it went on from 1868 to 1874. when he had six good 

 years. 



8638. They were all reducing their rents in those 

 years? When? 



8639. Between 1870 and 1890? No, they gave abate- 

 ments, hut a great many of them did not reduce. 

 I thought it was an unwise proceeding; but they 

 took off 10 per rent., and so on. Take Lord Lincoln- 

 shire's farms. Those rents were never altered: all 

 they did was to give an abatement. It amounted 

 to tho same thing, but it was not really reduction. 



8640. It was the same thing? No, it was not 

 exactly the same thing, because they waited until 

 a great ninny of the farmers were impoverished before 

 they did it. If they had done it early it would have 

 saved a good deal of anxiety, and I may say, almost 

 bankruptcy; but they waited too long I think. 



8641. Did they not meet tho situation then nenerallv 

 by giving the abatements, or, as I say, reducing 

 rents and by letting tho farmers off their leases? 

 Yes, the large landowners. 



8642. Do you think the landlord Is. only now getting 

 back to the position he was in in 1870 to 1874 ? I 

 should very much question whether the landowner 

 had yot got back to tho position ho was in in 1874 ; 

 because ho has done all his improvements since then 

 and got very little interest for it. 



8643. And the farmer who is said to have done so 

 well now owing to the increase in prices, is probably 

 netting back to his pre-1879 position? The farmer is!- 



8644. Yes? Tho farmers are better off than they 

 were in those days, and education has done a great 

 deal for them. They arc not spending so recklessly. 

 In those days they w.-n- very reckless. 



-' ! What I meant was, that the farmer who had 

 lost nearly all his capital in 1880 to 1890, is now 

 recovering it and getting back to the position he was 

 in? He has got beyond that. I have seen it. 



8646. I have seen figures which show the contrary? 

 You may find one odd man. We are talking, of 

 course, about the general run, anil not taking any 

 particular odd man. 



8646A. Mr. llobbim: You told us that you still 

 consider that farming is one of the best businesses 

 under tho sun? I do. 



