AN ENQUIRY. 39 



it was, iu 1888, only £44,470,000, wliich would 

 scarcely go to sliow that landlords liad been con- 

 tinually increiising the rents of their lands. As 

 a matter of fact, except in the case of good dairy- 

 ing land, or land near a town, owners have largely 

 reduced their rents, even from the j'ear 1888, as 

 to which much evidence was given before the 

 Eoyal Commission on Agriculture; which showed 

 that rents had been reduced generally from 10 

 to 30 per cent, in the least distressed districts, 

 to 50 and 80 per cent, in the worst districts. 



It will perhaps be interesting if we mention 

 that the largest owners, that is to say, those own- 

 ing estates of over 500 acres each, let their land 

 at the lowest rent per acre, and that the next 

 largest owners, that is to say, those owning estates 

 from 100 to 500 acres each, come next in point 

 of rent they charge for their land ; whilst the two 

 remaining classes of owners, namely, those own- 

 ing estates from 50 to 100 acres, and those owning 

 estates of under 50 acres, come next to those 

 already mentioned in point of rent charged. A« 

 a matter of fact, of the four classes of owners, the 

 average rent charged per acre works out in the 

 first case at oGs. per acre, in the second at 40s., 

 in the third at 48s., and in the fourth at £5 16s. 

 per acre. It is common knowledge that the 

 owners of very small properties, such as those last 

 referred to, are not " land owners " in the sense 

 in which the term is commonly understood, as the 

 land is either attached to a dwelling, and accord- 

 ingly possesses a higher value than ordinary agri- 

 cultural laud, or it is more or less accommodation 



