250 AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION 



economically impossible over a large part of the 

 country, and have been, and can only be paid, in many 

 cases, by the steady depletion of tenants' capital, and 

 the consequent progressive deterioration of the soil. 



Reductions of rent have generally been insufficient, 

 and the evidence has been nearly uniform that com- 

 petition has tended to make rack-renting, relatively to 

 prices and returns, more oppressive, to penalise the 

 enterprising and improving farmer more heavily, and 

 to render his position more hopeless and intolerable. 

 The economic waste resulting from this state of things is 

 a matter of national concern. 



While, therefore, having noted several serious objec- 

 tions to proposals like those of Mr Smith's Bill, I feel 

 convinced that it is my duty to recommend some simple 

 and adequate means for facilitating the reduction of rents 

 generally to a fair economic level. 



Assuming that official arbitrators, with the powers 

 and qualifications suggested in the previous chapter, have 

 been appointed, it is natural to suppose that the determina- 

 tion of the letting value of a farm, when in dispute between 

 landlord and tenant, would be not infrequently referred 

 to the arbitrator by consent of both parties. As he will 

 have to decide in the case of a sitting tenant, the pro- 

 portionate reduction of rent which is necessary to ex- 

 clude the tenant's improvements from the new rent, 

 and in the case of a tenant who is obliged to leave 

 owing to the refusal of a reasonable reduction of rent, 

 the amount of loss sustained by the tenant, it is plain 

 that this official in the discharge of these duties, must 

 not only form but frequently express an opinion as to 

 the relation of the total rent to the real productive 

 value of the farm as an agricultural instrument. 



If, as is generally anticipated by those who advocate 

 their appointment, these officials acquire the confidence 

 of both parties, I think it eminently probable that in 

 the re-valuation of farms or estates, their experienced 

 judgment will be thought helpful in voluntary arrange- 

 ments. The fact that they will draw up the record of 

 condition of farms at the beginning of tenancies, and 



