LEGALISE LORD TOLLEMACHE S LEASE 243 



The result on that estate has been contentment and 

 splendid cultivation, and a readiness to pay somewhat 

 higher rents than elsewhere. 



Mr Cooke states that what is wanted in the proposals 

 of the Bill is to secure pretty much the legalising of a 

 lease like Lord Tollemache's. 



Mr Bear, who in 1881, 1882, and 1883 took a leading 

 part in promoting the proposals of the Farmers' 

 Alliance, is of opinion that compensation by valuation 

 always has been, and must be, a failure, and that free 

 sale is the only satisfactory measure of the value of 

 improvements. Fixity of tenure, and fair rents are 

 only desirable to facilitate bargaining. The Farmers' 

 Alliance proposed a term of seven years, during which 

 the rent could not be altered. The landlord would 

 have the right of pre-emption at the market price. 

 This price would ex hypothesi be the highest offer of an 

 outsider. And the offer fof the outsider must clearly 

 be based on some kind of valuation. The first Bill of 

 the Alliance, giving free sale alone as the procedure, 

 was discarded in favour of a second Bill giving the 

 alternative of procedure by valuation. 



Mr Bear states that the free sale proposals were not 

 generally acceptable to the majority of farmers. 



Professor Long supports the " three F's " proposals in 

 their entirety, holding that the invested capital of the 

 tenant cannot be properly secured without fixity of 

 tenure at a fair rent. Compensation under the Act is, he 

 contends, a mere farce. " If the most is to be got from 

 the land, and a satisfied and prosperous tenantry to be 

 kept upon it, you must give them a very distinct interest 

 in the soil, and induce them in every way to put their 

 money and labour into it. Fixity of tenure exists to- 

 day in the case of many good landlords, and I would 

 not wish for more than they give ; but it is the majority 

 who are bad, or rather who do not do their duty to 

 their tenants, whom I should like a law passed to 

 control." 



He thinks that fixity of tenure, by encouraging 

 larger investment, will make it necessary to give 



