CONCLUSION 237 



commenced with inclement seasons, but it now springs 

 from low prices arising out of foreign competition, cheap 

 freights, over-production, and the increased purchasing 

 power of gold. Where is the remedy to be sought ? 



Not in violent changes in conditions of land tenure ; 

 throughout the present crisis capitalist landlords have 

 proved the saviours of the industry, and not an incubus on 

 the soil. The paucity of their numbers should add no 

 element of insecurity to their property, but it narrowly 

 limits the range of practicable measures for their relief. As 

 a remedy for low prices Protection fails. Continental ex- 

 perience shows conclusively that moderate import duties 

 do not enable wheat to be grown at a profit. Even if 

 Protection offered a remedy, it is unlikely to be applied. 

 For every one man who says that bread is too cheap, there 

 are a hundred who say it is too dear. Nor, again, is the 

 remedy to be found in the reduction of the tithe rent- 

 charge. Apart from the injustice of the demand, those 

 interested in its existing application, and those desirous of 

 its diversion to secular objects, are united to preserve the 

 corpus of the property intact. Moreover, subject to the 

 life interest of the Church, inviolable so long as religion is 

 recognised to be a vital element in the well-being of society 

 the nation claims the reversion ; and therefore it is a 

 prime duty of the State to guard the property with jealous 

 care. 



If, then, the remedy is not nationalisation of the land, 

 nor Protection, nor the reduction of the tithe rent-charge, 

 what is it ? Some of the causes of agricultural depres- 

 sion may be met by legislation, others spring from natural 

 conditions which cannot be controlled ; others may be re- 

 moved or modified by agriculturists themselves. 



To the first class belong such remedies as the following. 



