CHAPTER XI. 



The Agricultural Holdings Act (1883). 



The only serious attempt to check some of the evils 

 resulting from the existing system of tenure, and to give 

 a certain amount of security to the position of tenant 

 farmers in investing their money in the soil, has been the 

 Act of 1883. 



The Act of 1875 rnay be dismissed from considera- 

 tion. At best it was a mere record of some of the exist- 

 ing customs, and it was at once made null and void by 

 the contracting out clause, of which landlords promptly 

 availed themselves. 



The working of the Act of 1883 has been very gener- 

 ally condemned by witnesses of all classes, the substance 

 of whose evidence is summarised in the following para- 

 graphs. 



The principle of the Act was that an outgoing tenant 

 should be entitled to recover from the landlord, as com- 

 pensation for any improvements legally made by him 

 on his holding, the full value that the improvements 

 would represent as a benefit or aid to an incoming 

 tenant in entering on the holding. 



With regard to the more permanent improvements, 

 such as buildings, roads, bridges, and important altera- 

 tions in the character of the holding, the consent of the 

 owners is required, but this limitation does not alter the 

 principle of the Act, which is to secure to the tenant a 

 property right in the full value of his improvements. 



This principle is obviously sound and just to all 

 parties. In the first place, it treats compensation as a 

 debt to be paid to the outgoing tenant by the landlord, 



