206 AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION 



vention of this injustice by amendments of the provisions 

 of the Act. 



The suggestion made by Sir James Caird, and defeated 

 in ParHament, in committee on the bill in 1883, was, 

 that the words "on quitting his holding" should be 

 omitted, and compensation for improvements be recover- 

 able on the termination of a tenancy, whether the tenant 

 left, or entered into a fresh contract. 



The compensation might be in a lump sum, or might, 

 by agreement or award, take the form of a reduction of 

 rent for a number of years corresponding to the probable 

 period of exhaustion of the improvements, or of a charge 

 on the holding for a similar number of years. In case 

 either of these alternatives to a cash payment of the 

 whole sum due were adopted, and the tenancy was 

 terminated before the specified period had run out, the 

 actuarial value of the remaining reductions of rent or in- 

 stalments might be paid over to the tenant. This scheme 

 of Sir James Caird was worked out in Clause 10 of the 

 Agricultural Holdings Bill, 1894, in the form approved 

 by Sir James Caird himself in 1887. This clause is 

 omitted from the Agricultural Holdings Bill, 1897, 

 partly for simplification, partly because its procedure 

 would naturally be arrived at by agreements between 

 the parties. 



Several of the Scottish witnesses put the case for this 

 method of compensation very clearly. 



Mr Black says, if the tenant on renewal is not getting 

 cash payment — " I do not know a case where he ever 

 has got payment if he was continuing in the holding — 

 I think he is entitled to a reduction in the fixing of his 

 rent under the new lease." 



" But as a rule the practice has been that the proprietor, 

 either through his factor, or a valuator, has put a rent 

 upon the farm — the sitting tenant has the option only of 

 taking it at this rent or leaving it. The landlord values 

 the farm as it stands, improvements and all, and charges 

 rent for the full value. It would be a sound principle 

 for the landlord, when it was ascertained what the 

 amount of compensation due to the tenant for improve- 



