PART III -THE AGRARIAN REFORM OF 1903. 



CHAPTER I. 



INSUFFICIENCY OF THE LAND ACTS, 



The creation of courts for fixing rents was in 

 its time regarded as a socialistic experiment, 

 for which different parties predicted the most 

 different consequences. 



Did the experiment succeed ? Were the 

 judicial rents really adjusted to the fall in 

 prices ? 



The average rent-reduction in the years 

 1881--1897 may be taken at 28-5 per cent.^ The 

 fall in prices varied from 32*2 per cent, for flax, 

 20'8 (oats), 17*1 (butter) to I2"i for two-years 

 old and 5*2 for one-year old cattle ; there was 

 no decline in hay.^ Now in order to arrange 

 for an automatic connexion between prices and 

 rents one would have to ascertain how much of 

 each product came from each farm. But even 

 if we knew this, we should not yet be in a posi- 

 tion to say whether a rent-reduction was fair or 

 not. Say that the gross product of a farm is 



^ Fry Commission Report, p. 23. 



- lb., App. A, p. I ; App. G, pp. 353-359- 



