336 AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION 



to the Richmond Commission,^ as to the appointment of 

 official arbitrators, and the bearing of these suggestions, 

 directly and indirectly, on rent and conditions of tenancy, as 

 well as on compensation for improvements. 



Further, in the case of the reports and evidence of Air 

 Pringle and of Mr Speir, both of whom deal with this ques- 

 tion, the paragraphs of this chapter are seriously misleading, 

 and withhold matter which should be stated. 



While Mr Speir's evidence on the strictly limited point 

 of judicial revision of rents of land held by lease is correctly 

 quoted, the following passages of Mr Speir's report should 

 not have been withheld : — 



" Everybody is of opinion that nothing can rid agriculture 

 of the millstone about its neck so much as a readjust' 

 ment of rents in accordance with present prices. . . . 

 Everywhere evidence was submitted to me that, 

 while many matters connected with the owning and 

 occupying of land require amendment, many farmers 

 say that, ' unless the hiring of land is regulated in 

 some way, so as to prevent [reckless competition], 

 legislation in other channels will be of little avail. 

 They say, if the rent is wrong, no amount of legislation 

 in other directions will make the farm rights 

 " Few farms yield the profit they might do if farmed to 

 the highest possible capacity consistent with economy. 

 . . . Just now there is little security for money 

 so invested, and, until the Agricultural Holdings Act 

 is very materially amended, it will not be possible to 

 divert much more money into farming." 

 " Almost every farmer who gave evidence before me on 

 this matter mentioned this as a sine quA non of success : 

 'the nearer occupancy and ownership approach each 

 other the better would the land be farmed.' " 

 " The number is, comparatively speaking, small who are 

 decidedly in favour of a land court to the exclusion of 

 every other means, but a very large proportion say 

 that, unless some better scheme is devised than the 

 present Act, they will be forced, against their inclina- 

 tions, to favour the establishment of a court to fix 

 rents." ^ 



' Speir, Ayrshire, &c., p. II. See also Pars. 47 and 17 of Mr Speir's 

 Report. 



^ Coleman ; Report on Lancashire, &c., Richmond Commission. 



