APPENDIX. 



Reasons for Dissenting from the Report of 

 THE Majority. 



[Note. — It has been suggested that the following statement 

 of objections to the main report of the Commission, which 

 appeared as the first chapter of my separate report, should 

 be reproduced in the present volume. It is therefore placed 

 as an Appendix for purposes of reference only, the general 

 argument and conclusions being complete without it.] 



I regret that I am unable to concur in the Report of the 

 Majority of the Commission. 



While assenting to the introductory chapter recording 

 the course of our proceedings, and the scope and manner of 

 our inquiry, I think it is much to be regretted that the 

 general Report of the Commission dealing with the whole of 

 the causes of agricultural depression, and the whole of the 

 proposals that might be made either as remedies or mitiga- 

 tions, by legislative or administrative reforms, has not been 

 completed and issued before now. 



Most especiall}^ is it to be regretted that the one topic 

 upon which most evidence was taken and upon which a 

 great majority of witnesses were practically unanimous — 

 the Amendment of the Laws relating to Agricultural 

 Holdings — has not been reported on at an earlier stage of 

 our proceedings, or at any rate at the same time as the 

 Second Report dealing with " Burdens on Land." 



Legislation on this question has for years been urgently 

 needed, and I think it was perfectly possible for the Com- 

 mission to have reported on this subject in time for such a 

 report to have been the basis of legislation either in the 

 Session of 1S95 or the Session of 1896. 



This protracted delay has unfortunately withheld from 



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