258 AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION 



initiated in 1891 and 1892 by the proprietors of the 

 " Mark Lane Express." 



The Bill of 1894, the most complete of this series, was, 

 as regards the schedules, largely based on the decisions 

 of the Committee of the Central Chamber of Agriculture 

 appointed in that year to report on the necessary 

 amendments to the Agricultural Holdings Act. Im- 

 provements were divided into (i) those for which either 

 consent of the landlord, or the favourable decision of a 

 referee under the Act was necessary, ^ (2) those in 

 respect of which notice only is required, which head 

 included besides " drainage " the various improvements 

 transferred to Part II by the Committee, among them 

 the " laying down of permanent pasture." 



This Bill also added clauses giving compensation for 

 disturbance, in pursuance of a decision of the Central 

 Chamber Committee, ^ and abolishing the law of distress 

 for rent in agricultural holdings. 



In 1895, the Agricultural Holdings Bill was modified 

 further by a clause providing for a scheduled record of 

 condition at entry and quitting of farms, and by restrict- 

 ing the schedule to a small group of permanent improve- 

 ments, as to which consent or reference would be re- 

 quired, and leaving drainage by itself in Part II. This 

 change was made to meet the views of a number of im- 

 portant witnesses before this Commission, including Mr 

 Druce and Mr Carrington Smith. 



Mr George Lambert, in 1895, having secured a day in 

 the ballot, introduced a Bill to amend the existing Act, 

 which was based on and included, with slight modifi- 

 cations, most of the amending clauses of my Agricultural 

 Holdings Bill, 1894, and the schedules to that Bill. 

 Special provisions were inserted by Mr Lambert to give 

 tenants compensation for damage by game, and compen- 

 sation for disturbance not only for capricious and unjust 

 eviction, but also in the case of a " landlord refusing 

 without good and sufficient cause to grant a renewal of 



' This proposal was originally adopted by the Committee, and only struck 

 out of their report by a narrow vote on the final revision. 



' This proposal was also struck out at the final revision of the report. 



