238 AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION 



a man with good management would be able to live 

 on the farm, and obtain a fair return for his outlay." 



Mr Kidner's main ground is that the tenant's capital 

 is inseparable from the soil, and to encourage its invest- 

 ment it is necessary to restrict the power of the owner 

 from selling the use of the land at the highest obtainable 

 price. 



Mr Wilkinson asks for a court of some kind to deal 

 with compensation cases, the reasonableness of condi- 

 tions of tenure, and "of rent, in exceptional cases," where 

 reasonable reductions are refused.^ This is essential to 

 enable tenants who have heavy investments of their 

 capital in enriched fertility of the soil, and in valuable 

 stock, to escape being squeezed into unfair terms. 



Mr Wilkinson further contends that English should 

 have as good security as Irish farmers, and that if a 

 distinction is sought to be based on the fact that Irish 

 tenants have put up buildings, it is untenable, because 

 the value of the Irish investments in these improve- 

 ments is not comparable with the thousands of pounds 

 put into the farm by an English tenant in the shape of 

 cakes and manure and other heavy outlays. 



But Mr Wilkinson is not in favour of the full applica- 

 tion of the Irish Act, with fixity of tenure and dual 

 ownership. His object is to protect the invested 

 capital of the tenant, and to prevent its confiscation in 

 rent. 



" I hold that the landlord should not have my im- 

 provements or live on my capital any longer. What 

 belongs to the landlord let him sell at the best price, but 

 he has no right to sell what belongs to the tenant." 



An appeal as to rent should not be made oftener than 

 from five to seven years. Mr Wilkinson would appa- 

 rently leave it open to either party to give notice to 

 quit during such an interval with compensation for 

 disturbance, if the circumstances called for it. 



And he especially insists on the right of appeal as to 

 rent, where a tenant has been refused a reasonable 

 reduction, the tenant having also in this case the right 



' 31,394-7- 



