2 54 AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION 



an average of produce, I should not take it at that. 

 I would take it at an average, or normal rate." 



"If made general and compulsory, this proposal would 

 settle the land question for the next fifty years." 



The valuation might be made by valuers to repre- 

 sent either side. 



Mr Murray combines this suggestion of a general 

 re-valuation on sound economic lines with a proposal 

 for rents on a sliding scale. 



While reasons have been stated in Chapter VIII for 

 holding that a sliding scale would not be an acceptable 

 solution, clearly this suggestion, the general re-valuation 

 recommended by Mr Murray, is well worth considera- 

 tion. Such a re-valuation might be carried out most 

 cheaply either by the proposed official arbitrators alone, 

 or with the aid of a certain number of assistants tempo- 

 rarily appointed to work under them, or again, re- 

 valuations agreed upon between the parties might be 

 registered in the offices of the official arbitrators, and 

 unless challenged by either party before the arbitrator 

 within any given time, be held to have the effect of 

 decisions made by the arbitrator. 



With regard to arbitration for the settlement of 

 individual cases, I recommend that either party shall 

 have the right to apply to the official arbitrator to have 

 a fair economic, as opposed to a competition, rent fixed, 

 and that the rent thus fixed may, by agreement between 

 the parties, be fixed for any period they agree upon 

 exceeding three years, but that if there is no such agree- 

 ment for a longer period, the rent fixed by arbitration 

 shall be unchanged for three years. Clause 20 of the 

 Agricultural Holdings Bill, 1897, contains this provision. 



In view of the existing disinclination to being bound 

 by a fixed rent for a long period, it might be suggested 

 as a fair solution of that difficulty if, on the one hand, the 

 tenant were allowed to give notice to quit, if he thought 

 fit, before the expiry of the three years, but in that case 

 to lose any claim for compensation for disturbance, and if, 

 on the other hand, the landlord were allowed to deter- 

 mine the tenancy also by notice, giving the tenant in 



