

CHAPTER VII. 



Rents as a Cause of Depression. 



The evidence goes to show that over-renting (i) has 

 been a chief cause of depression, in bringing farmers 

 to ruifi7~ahd in deteriorating the condition of the land ; 

 (2) is even now very general ; and (3) that the opinion 

 that further reductions are necessary and inevitable, is, 

 among farming witnesses, practically universal. 



Colonel Hughes, agent to Sir VV. W. Wynn, says : 

 " The men who put things wrong were those who raised 

 rents in the prosperous times ; there never was a more 

 unwise step." 



Mr Fyshe puts " high rents " before low prices as a 

 cause of depression. M^ t/^AuJUl^A/^ 



Mr Kidner places second in the list of causes' of 

 depression " the great increase in rents in times of inflated 

 prices, with too slow reduction under the subsequent 

 depression." Rents are made up " by good cultivation, 

 and by drawing upon capital." 



Mr Harrison, who says " rent is the first remedy " for 

 depression, and thinks rent may be fairly defined as " the 

 profit that is made after the farmer has been able to live 

 and pay the outgoings on the farm," states that " for the 

 last twenty years tenants have been paying a large 

 amount of rent out of capital." 



Mr Mtddleton, taking the same view, says : " More 

 relief could be got by reduction of rent than in ai>y other . 



way." Hrt^ ^J>^i^ *^^^ 1*^^***^ 



Mr Rolleston, a land agent, thinks that from hopingr 

 for a change for the better, " farmers paid more rent than 

 they ought to have paid." " Their capital has completely 

 melted away." 



