APPEAL WHERE REDUCTION REFUSED 239 



to compensation for disturbance if no agreement is 

 arrived at, and he has to quit. 



Mr Riley, who does not himself desire Irish legislation 

 for England, but states that tenants are making nothing 

 and paying rents largely out of capital, and that the 

 keen competition for improved farms in high condition, 

 prevents adequate reduction of their rents, quotes 

 several farmers who wish to apply to this state of things 

 an adequate remedy. 



Thus, a farmer whose holding has been in the family 300 

 years and is splendidly farmed, can get no sufficient 

 reduction, though his landlord is offering his Irish land 

 at fourteen years purchase to the Irish tenants. 



Another first-class large farmer says : " The only relief 

 is an Irish land law for England. The best landlords 

 need have no fear of it ; it would only catch the bad 

 ones who want more than the land is worth. Why 

 should not the industrious, law-respecting English 

 farmers have the same laws for land as the Irish ? " 



Mr Reynolds thinks rents must be brought into a fair 

 proportion to the fall in prices, and that the old tenants 

 will not be able to obtain such " reductions without 

 some authority at the back of them, in the nature of a 

 land court." The term for a judicial rent should be five 

 years; but, like Mr Wilkinson, he would give the right 

 to the landlord to get rid of his tenant, with full com- 

 pensation for unjust disturbance. 



Both parties would retain their freedom, and could not 

 be injured. If the tenant gave it up, not liking the rent 

 fixed, the landlord would be able to let the farm at 

 once, supposing the rent reasonable. The court must be 

 presumed to fix a fair rent. 



Mr Nunneley says as to arbitration for rents : "If it 

 could be fairly provided, I think it would be a good 

 thing." The difficulty he sees is that though the law 

 might compel the landlord, it could not compel the 

 tenant to stop if dissatisfied. He thinks that among 

 tenant farmers there would be rather a preponderance of 

 opinion in favour of some kind of arbitration. He, him- 

 self, is not in favour of fixity of tenure. 



