96 AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION 



Mr Squarey, whose experience is extensive, and who 

 has made heavy reductions on properties under his 

 charge, states that " as a rule, with the reductions that 

 have been made, the tenants are not doing themselves 

 any good, and are not adequately remunerated for their 

 labour and energy." 



Mr Wyatt states "the reduction — 40 per cent. — in 

 Somersetshire is certainly not in fair proportion to the 

 fall in prices. Some of the farmers have had to take 

 the rent out of their banking account, and out of money 

 invested, and a great many have taken it out of the 

 land, deteriorating it in value." 



Mr Middleton says, there must be large arrears of 

 rents — " It is a marvel to me how rents are paid at all in 

 some cases." 



Mr Ferguson says, " If I had not made some money 

 in the good times, I could not have stood the bad." 



As to the insufficiency of existing reductions, 

 even those witnesses who expressed their appreciation 

 of the manner they had been met by their landlords, 

 stated that others were rented too high, and could not 

 make their rents.^ Thus, among others, Mr Baker 

 states that, even with reductions ranging from 20 to 60 

 per cent, further reductions of 25 to 30 per cent, are 

 desired by tenants in Northamptonshire. Even, apart 

 from the bad seasons of 1893 and 1894, they cannot 

 make ends meet. Rents have not been sufficiently 

 reduced, or reduced in time. 



Other striking evidence on this point may be quoted. 

 Thus Mr J. Stratton says, " Rents will still have to come 

 down, as we tenant farmers will not go on occupying 

 land and investing capital in it, unless we get something 

 like a fair return." 



Mr R. Brown, who has received 50 per cent, remission 

 on. the Duke of Bedford's estate, takes the same view. 



So does Mr Treadwell, who says " the present rents 

 cannot be made anywhere this year" (1893-94). 



' Rowlandson, 17,573 ; Noakes, 3365 ; Parton, 26,225, 26,229 ; R. Britten, 

 56,468, 56,568-7 ; T. Carrington Smith, 9678-82 ; 9744 ; Scott, 30,042 ; 

 30,016; Baker, 47,i76, 47,250-5, 47,284-91 ; Riley, 36,458, etc., 36,5", etc. 



