334 AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION 



into the soil became the landlord's property, and their in- 

 tention was to put an end to the confiscation of the tenant's 

 improvements, the usual method of which has been by 

 including the annual value added thereby in the rent of the 

 holding. 



While in the paragraphs as to compensation for the sitting- 

 tenant, and for unreasonable disturbance, the Report has 

 been obliged to touch on the subject of rent, the discussion 

 is deprived of reality and practical value by the exclusion 

 from this chapter of the representations made to us by nearly 

 every tenant farmer witness, and reported to us by our 

 Assistant Commissioners, that the most serious objection 

 taken to the existing Acts is that, while they give too much 

 help to the bad and unscrupulous, they give little or no pro- 

 tection to the improving farmer, and that the legal pro- 

 tection to the best type of farmer becomes less just in 

 proportion to the greatness of his investments in the soil. 

 This is the key to the real demand for reform, and it is 

 ignored by the report of the majority. 



I also regret that the report does not assent to the reason- 

 able proposals for freedom to make improvements, and as to 

 cropping and sale of produce under reasonable conditions, 

 which were shown to have had the support of the English 

 and Scottish Chambers of Agriculture, and especially that 

 no encouragement is given, in the recommendations, to 

 that most essential improvement, in these times, the laying 

 down of pasture. 



I have also to note that the report wholly omits any 

 recognition of the extensive concessions to tenants, as to 

 the right of making improvements and obtaining compensa- 

 tion, retrospectively as well as in future, given by the 

 Market Gardeners' Compensation Act, 1895. Market 

 gardens, it should have been remembered, are included 

 under the provisions of the Agricultural Holdings Act 

 (England), 1883. 



Land Tenure. 



I take exception to the chapter on Land Tenure, because 

 it does not grapple with the real points at issue. 



Changes of tenure are suggested in order to prevent 

 certain forms of economic injustice to tenants, which our 



