3l8 AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION 



Procedure of the Act. 



(14.) The claims of the tenant for improvement, and of 

 the landlord for deterioration, should be served on 

 the other party simultaneously. 



(15.) A record of the condition of a holding should, so 

 far as possible, be inserted in every contract of 

 tenancy, and in every award under the Act. 



(16.) References under the Act should be determined 

 by a single arbitrator, from whose decision there 

 shall be no appeal except upon a point of law. 



(17.) For each county, or portion of a county, or group 

 of counties where expedient, the Board of Agri- 

 culture should appoint an agricultural arbitrator, 

 whose qualifications should be practical experi- 

 ence of the agriculture of the district, judicial 

 capacity and absolute independence and imparti- 

 ality, such arbitrator to be paid partly out of a 

 general fund created by fees, partly by the State, 

 and to be removable, for cause shown, by the 

 Board of Agriculture. 



(18.) All matters in dispute, including rent, should be 

 referred to the agricultural arbitrator. 



(19.) The preferential right of the landlord to distrain 

 for rent should be abolished as regards agricul- 

 tural land. 



II. — RAILWAY RATES. 



The Railway and Canal Traffic Acts should be 

 amended so as to enable traders to test the reasonable- 

 ness of every rate or condition, and to test all evidence 

 bearing on those questions, and to create a cheap and 

 accessible machinery for deciding all cases, and to 

 remove uncertainty from the decisions of Parliament 

 and the courts as to undue preference. 



