146 AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION 



The restrictions on absolute ownership clearly inten- 

 sify the mischief of insolvent and encumbered landlords. 

 The abolition of entail and settlement as regards land, 

 and the compulsory registration of title, with a clear and 

 accessible record of every act and transaction as to the 

 land, would remove many difficulties, would enable 

 existing owners to sell their land to greater advantage, 

 would increase their motive as well as power for selling, 

 would stimulate the better distribution of land, and, in 

 Sir Arthur Arnold's words, would tend to " bring the 

 effective energy of a very large number of minds to deal 

 with the land to increase its production." 



This whole group of reforms would simplify the situa- 

 tion and enable estates now bound down by complicated 

 interests, and in many cases paralysed by the prolonged 

 and cumulative embarrassments of the nominal owner, 

 to be extricated from their hopeless position, and 

 promptly made available for the work of agriculture, 

 and the benefit of the community. 



I am also strongly of opinion that in any legislation 

 affecting encumbered and bankrupt estates and facilitat- 

 ing their sale, it would be eminently desirable, now that 

 a strong local authority in the shape of county councils 

 exists, that provision should be made, giving to county 

 councils a right of pre-emption on the sale of such estates, 

 for any public purpose, and especially with the view of 

 letting or reselling the agricultural land to those who 

 will make the best use of it. 



