202 LAND TENURE 



and others in common use are declared to possess no manurial 

 value of any account. 



Messrs. Voelcker and Hall now recommend that compensation 

 shall only be paid for feeding stuffs consumed during the last 

 two years of the tenancy, instead of the four years of the tables 

 of 1903. This recommendation, however, will make but little 

 change in actual practice, for w T hilst some few Valuers' Associa- 

 tions are paying on the last three years' consumption, the great 

 majority which have adopted the manurial basis of compensation 

 only pay on the last two years. In connection with this, how- 

 ever, they make one very important recommendation which is 

 an entirely new departure, viz., fixing a very much higher scale 

 of compensation for food consumed direct on the land than for 

 what is made into dung. This recommendation only applies 

 to foods consumed during the last year of the tenancy. 



It is certainly sound in principle, and is quite in accord with 

 the recommendations contained in the report of your Committee 

 issued in January, 1903, as are the deductions now recommended 

 to be made where the dung has been improperly made and taken 

 care of. 



Messrs. Voelcker and Hall's recommendations as to what 

 deductions should be made from the compensation payable in 

 respect of food consumed by milk cows and young stock are also 

 very much in accord with those of your Committee's report of 

 1903. 



With regard to hay and straw r sold off the farm, Messrs. Voelcker 

 and- Hall declare that straw has a mechanical in addition to a 

 manurial value, and recommend that when straw is sold, the 

 manurial value, 7s. per ton only, should be allowed on the pro- 

 portion that would have been fed (as there is no mechanical 

 value attaching to straw when fed to stock) ; and that an addi- 

 tional allowance of 7s. per ton (making 14s. per ton altogether) 

 for the mechanical value should be made from the proportion 

 that would have been used for litter. In practice, your Com- 

 mittee consider that it will be difficult to allocate the proportion 

 which would have been used for each of these purposes, and as 

 a general rule a sum representing the average of these figures 

 would be approximately correct. 



The selling off or bringing hay on to a farm they recommend 

 should be dealt with on a manurial basis only. 



Messrs. Voelcker and Hall recognise the difficulty of formulating 

 any scale for artificial manures suitable for all districts and con- 

 ditions, but subject to reservations recommend a certain scale. 

 Your Committee adhere to the recommendation contained in 

 their report of 1903, that this is a matter that can best be dealt 

 with by local Valuers' Associations. 



So far as this part of the question (the method of assessing 

 compensation for unexhausted improvements) is concerned, 

 it may justly be claimed that the Chambers have accomplished 



