330 AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION 



share in the produce of the land after the cost of production 

 has been met. 



It is urged, in paragraphs 63, etc., that the estate 

 accounts show that the great landlords have suffered severely, 

 but in my opinion these accounts establish exactly the 

 reverse. Those of the English estates show that the arrears 

 of the agreed rents are inconsiderable — less than 9 per cent. 

 — and that taking twenty years' purchase, which is a 

 moderate but fair " all round estimate " for the estates in 

 question, the rents actually paid represent nearly 5 per cent, 

 on the capital value, and the net rent nearly 3 per cent. 

 It is beside the mark to quote Mr Mill to show that real 

 rent has disappeared in such a case, as it is obvious that in 

 the agreed rental the annual value of the land, together with 

 the use of the whole results of the landlords' outlay, is 

 expressed. Further, as is shown elsewhere (Chapter IX), 

 the calculations of the outgoings are misleading and ex- 

 aggerated, and include some payments which do not belong 

 to estate maintenance, and others which are part of the 

 ordinary local outgoings of any resident. 



Effects of Depression on Occupiers. 



The section dealing with the depression in its effects 

 upon occupiers is, in my opinion, a wholly inadequate pre- 

 sentment of the enormous mass of facts and figures supplied 

 by farming witnesses of authority from all parts of the 

 country, and by our Assistant Commissioners in their 

 reports. 



Use is made of the tables in the Memorandum by 

 Mr Little on the farm accounts (Appendix III to Final 

 Report). 



I have considered these accounts in several aspects, and 

 especially in their bearing upon the actual years during 

 which depression was actually present, and I have con- 

 sidered the careful and instructive comments upon these 

 accounts, giving many further facts explaining their bearing 

 upon the position of farmers, which were inserted in the 

 reports by our Sub-Commissioners after direct local inquiry 

 from the farmers themselves. 



I am convinced from this examination that, so far as the 

 farm accounts can be taken as a fair illustration of the 



