COMPENSATION FOR DISTURBANCE 215 



to proofs of a strong feeling on the insecurity of tenure, 

 considerable weight must attach to these suggestions. 



So far as it has been possible to gauge the feelings of 

 tenant-farmers during our inquiry, there is at the present 

 time a general reluctance to being bound down to pay a 

 stipulated rent for a long period. Leases and fixity of 

 tenure are not in favour, at any rate in England. But 

 the sense that the more a tenant does to improve his 

 farm the less power he has to arrange fair terms for con- 

 tinuing his tenancy is, in my opinion, wholly inconsistent 

 with the well-being of agriculture. And it is, without 

 doubt, the one idea most tenaciously held, and most 

 frequently dwelt upon, by the majority of the tenant 

 farmers who came before us. 



The landlord should have the fullest power to obtain, 

 at the proper times, the rent agreed upon, and to insist 

 that the tenant shall not persistently injure his land by 

 acts of waste. But beyond these powers, which are 

 necessary to protect the landlord's interests, it is not 

 unreasonable that a pecuniary check should be put on 

 any arbitrary action, which compels the tenant to leave his 

 holding, a pecuniary check reasonably measured by the 

 loss thus caused to the tenant. And such arbitrary action 

 could hardly be confined to capricious or unjust eviction. 

 Injustice as cruel may be inflicted by the refusal of a fair 

 reduction of rent, which compels a tenant to quit his 

 holding, and to lose the savings and investments of half 

 a lifetime. I submit that in such cases where a landlord 

 refuses to reduce the rent reasonably, or to submit the 

 matter to arbitration, the tenant should be entitled to 

 some compensation for his loss by removal. It would 

 contribute to steady and improving occupancy and 

 benefit all concerned if the tenant's position were made 

 more secure by giving him a legal right to be compen- 

 sated for his losses in being compelled to leave his farm, 

 owing to the action of his landlord, except for non-pay- 

 ment of rent and for bad farming. 



