130 AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION 



but if they can be taken as fairly representing the pro- 

 portion of loans applied by owners to the maintenance 

 or development of their estates, it would appear that, 

 since the depression set in, the outlay on the essential 

 provisions for the well-being and effective working of 

 estates — the outlay which would keep good labour on 

 the land, and help farmers if possible to make a profit 

 out of it, has been, in the cases where owners borrowed 

 under the Acts, relatively subordinated to the comfort 

 and dignity of the landowners' families, and that, as rents 

 have been further reduced in the last five years, this 

 relation of the several outlays has been still more sharply 

 defined. Mr Elliott's explanation that some of this 

 expenditure on mansion houses was made by new pur- 

 chasers of estates out of money derived from other 

 sources, does not seem to touch the point of the relative 

 proportions of the outlays charged for the several 

 purposes.^ 



Special significance also attaches to the very general 

 demand of tenant farmers in many districts for amend- 

 ments to the Agricultural Holdings Act, to confer on 

 them the right to either obtain from the landlord, or to 

 execute for themselves (with the right to compensation) 

 the classes of improvements which they hold to be 

 essential to the profitable working of the soil. It is 

 impossible to suppose that this contention would be so 

 frequently and forcibly advanced were it not that there 

 must be a very large, and as yet unsatisfied, demand for 

 the better equipment of farms. 



The outlay by landlords on improvements has been 

 generally regarded as a justification for rents which 

 otherwise would be obviously thought to be high, if not 

 excessive, in the face of falling prices. 



Many owners seem to think that they are getting no 

 rent at all for their land, unless they have first secured 

 what they consider a fair interest on their own outlay in 

 improvements. The whole of this outlay is regarded as 

 capital invested in buildings, drainage, fencing, and other 

 improvements, and it is clearly matter of conviction with 



' Vol. Ill, App. XXIX. 



