324 AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION 



of disaster which can be reached and remedied, is the faulty- 

 system of the tenure of agricultural land. A report which 

 does not face and attempt fairly to arrive at some solution 

 of this question is of no practical value whatever. 



And, in effect, this is admitted in the summing up of the 

 recommendations of the majority (paragraph 600) where the 

 recommendations are described merely as palliatives. 



It is evident throughout the report of the majority that 

 the situation has been considered almost exclusively from the 

 standpoint of the landlord, and has not been threshed out 

 solely from the economic point of view. 



In this connexion, I feel bound to contrast the terms of 

 the Second Report of the Commission where the pressure of 

 burdens upon agricultural land is dealt with. 



"Excessive burdens may undoubtedly throw land out of 

 cultivation, and it appears from the evidence that they have 

 already had this effect in certain parts of the country. In 

 other cases, where the results have not yet been equally 

 disastrous, the imposition of excessive burdens on land must 

 tend to discourage the investment of capital, the application 

 of enterprise, and the employment of labour on land, and 

 thereby operate directly to the detriment of the whole 

 agricultural community, and ultimately to the injury of the 

 community at large." 



But if the case needs to be stated so strongly for the relief 

 of agriculture from, according to the recommendation of the 

 Second Report, three-fourths of the rates imposed upon land, 

 or a sum of only about is lod an acre on the average, I sub- 

 mit that a very much stronger demand ought to be made in 

 respect of a reasonable relief from the burden of the item of 

 rent, which has been shown to amount on an average to 

 over 20s per acre on many great estates in England and 

 Scotland 



Further, I cannot think the various contributory causes of 

 depression are marshalled or handled in a satisfactory manner, 

 and that the arrangement of the Report in that respect 

 leaves much to be desired. 



To deal in detail with those portions of the Report of the 

 majority in which I am unable to concur : — 



The Report seems to me to insufficiently recognise the 

 facts established in our inquiry : — 



(i.) That the depression has been continuous since the 

 Richmond Inquiry ; 



