AGRICULTURAL WAGES. 215 



and dishonest service, there might be something 

 in the wage-raising idea as a panacea. But as I 

 see the position it is rather this : The community 

 refuses to give the land a fair chance for its 

 products ; the big landowner, in consequence, 

 has to put up with a return from his landed 

 estate which in some cases does not pay interest 

 on the capital sunk in improvements ; the 

 tenant farmer, though he does not pay an 

 economic rent, but something far lower, finds 

 it difficult to make both ends meet, and cannot 

 afford to be generous to his labourers. The 

 best of the labourers drift away to other parts 

 of the Empire, or to foreign lands offering 

 better conditions, and the residue become each 

 year less and less efficient. It is throughout a 

 pitiful story. But surely the first step towards 

 reform is to help to make the cultivation of the 

 land a truly profitable industry. Then there 

 can be a better wage for the worker, a better 

 profit for the farmer, and, even — if one may dare 

 to suggest it — a better rent for such landlords 

 as are left after the demand for small holdings 

 has been met. To enforce a higher wage for 

 agricultural labour under present conditions 



