IMPROVEMENTS PAID FOR BY TENANTS 1 35 



paid up the capital and interest in the course of a nine- 

 teen years' lease at the rate of 6^ per cent., and then he 

 was charged a larger rent on these improvements in his 

 next lease." 



Mr Speir states, as regards the south-western counties 

 of Scotland, that the improvements have practically been 

 executed by the tenants. The landlords have built most 

 of the houses, but the tenants have done the cartage for 

 great distances in hilly districts, meaning a heavy outlay 

 for which no adequate return has been made.^ And in 

 many cases the principal and interest for the buildings 

 has been paid by the tenant alone. 



In the case of a Northants tenancy brought before us, 

 a mill was erected by the landlord, and fitted with 

 special machinery in 1893, the annual value of which was 

 taken to be ;^ioo, and an addition of £^0 a year was 

 made to the rent, or rather the reduction of the rent 

 from £72)2 to ;^400 was placed at iJ^4So, to cover part of 

 the outlay.^ And in many instances it has been urged 

 that reductions of rent to tenants have been made in a 

 certain sense by some increase in the outlay of the land- 

 lord in permanent improvements. If this argument is 

 economically sound, it proves that these permanent im- 

 provements are being paid for by the tenant and not by 

 the landlord. 



If the evidence is conclusive, as appears to be the case, 

 that this paying off by the tenant has been, till the last 

 few years, the general practice except on a very few 

 large estates, it is plain that the tenants have really 

 borne in most instances the expense of permanent 

 improvements, in addition to the outlay they have made 

 from their own capital in developing and maintaining 

 the fertility and condition of the soil, and frequently 

 also in more prosperous times in carrying out permanent 

 improvements themselves. The landlord's share in the 

 transaction has been the advance of capital, and for the 

 argument it matters nothing whether it has been 

 borrowed from the Exchequer, or from a company, or 

 from elsewhere, or expended out of rents received, or 



> T. Carrington Smith, 8127. * Baker, 47,167, 



