2 20 AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION 



had been administered. 'Any fool can be a valuer;' 

 when a farmer failed at his business he could take to 

 valuation, for so long as he gave the amount, and stated 

 the articles he had valued, it mattered not how his 

 conclusion had been arrived at." Again, " The landlord 

 is a fixture, the tenant removable, so that the valuers 

 lean to the landlord ; the odds were all in favour of the 

 side which had most power and could give most jobs." 



The referee and umpire system has failed, and will 

 never satisfy either landlord or tenant in deciding 

 compensation for improvements or a fair rent. 



" The valuers in Norfolk ' boycott ' the Act." 



"If the present valuers exercise their powers as they 

 now do, no Act will be of use in Norfolk." The tendency 

 of valuers is shown by the suggestion from Norfolk that 

 " all agents should be struck off the lists of valuers." 



The leading farmers who gave evidence strongly con- 

 demn the present state of things. 



Mr Rowlandson : — " I hope that you will do away with 

 a certain class of men that I should like to see eliminated." 



Mr James Stratton : — " It would be a great help to 

 have an official arbitrator ; the valuers do not seem to 

 know what to do, and their action has not conduced to 

 the encouragement to leave farms in the high state of 

 cultivation so much desired." 



Mr Middleton : — " It would be an advantage if the 

 proper men were selected ; it would cheapen the working 

 of the Act, and it would be more equitably worked." 

 There are men carrying on arbitrations who do not grasp 

 the provisions of the Act. 



Mr Lipscomb : — " I am perfectly confident that the 

 complaints made against the Act are largely due to the 

 faulty administration by valuers. I scarcely ever meet a 

 valuer who is acquainted with the provisions of the 

 Act." 



" I constantly find that valuers do not comply with 

 the Act, and appoint an umpire before they proceed to 

 business. These delays are most injurious ; they are 

 costly, and nobody gains but the valuers." He suggests 

 that " the umpire should be called in at once, and so get 



