1 82 AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION 



law, to recover damages from a tenant for a waste com- 

 mitted, i.e., waste which results from acts of the tenant, 

 but not for " permissive waste " such as allowing a build- 

 ing to fall of itself from neglect, etc. But this section 

 gives the landlord a new power, by enabling him to set 

 off against a yearly tenant's claim for compensation a 

 claim for waste which he could not maintain indepen- 

 dently of the Act. I am of opinion that the claim of the 

 landlord as regards any alleged waste, whether committed 

 or permitted, should not be admissible under section 6, 

 unless he shall have given notice to the tenant within 

 six months of the commission of the waste to make it 

 good, or in regard to permissive waste, unless he shall 

 have given notice to the tenant (within one month after 

 a notice to quit has been given by either party), to desist 

 from any specified form of waste. 



In Scotland, the spirit of recent decisions of the courts 

 is that, if a receipt for rent has been given without com- 

 ment, or if the landlord fails to proceed for waste within 

 a reasonable time, he should be held to have lost his 

 right by acquiescence. 



It has already been noted that the practice of referees 

 and umpires, and of the county ands uperior courts, has 

 disallowed any recovery of penal rents beyond the amount 

 of actual damage proved. I think that this sensible 

 and just practice should now be made statutory, and 

 recommend in any new Act the insertion of a clause to 

 the effect of clause 7 in the Agricultural Holdings 

 Bill, 1897, which makes provision to carry this out. 

 Appendix II to this Report. 



Compensation for Improvements. 



The extension of the principle of the Act by increasing 

 the number of improvements for which compensation is 

 payable, and by removing the obstacles to the full 

 application of this principle in all cases, has been 

 advocated universally by tenant farmer witnesses. 



There is a general and a growing demand on the part 



