IMPORTANT EVIDENCE WITHHELD ^T,"/ 



I submit that this is as strong a statement of the real case 

 for tenure reform as can be imagined, and that this 

 chapter, as it stands, gives a wholly misleading im- 

 pression of the results of Mr Speir's inquiry. 

 Paragraph 422 is also misleading and incorrect. 

 Mr Pringle, who, in my opinion, has rendered excellent 

 service as an Assistant Commissioner in all the districts he 

 has visited, found in the South Midlands a district where 

 arable farming had passed through much the same stages as 

 in Essex, though for various reasons the last stage of ex- 

 haustion of some Essex districts had not been reached. 



Both as to Essex, and as to Beds, Hunts, and Northants, 

 Mr Pringle laid before us much evidence of the feeling of 

 farmers on the questions of unfair rents and insecurity. 



In this paragraph, the passages of the Essex report are 

 ignored altogether. 



As to the Essex farmers, Mr Pringle states : — 

 "I had continuous evidence of their desire for better 

 security in the form of continued occupation at fair 

 rents, no charge being put upon their own improve- 

 ments. . . . Any compensation which might be ob- 

 tained by an outgoing tenant under an Agricultural 

 Holdings Act is but a poor substitute for continued 

 enjoyment at a fair rent. The principle of the Irish 

 Land Act was generally approved of. . . . It was 

 suggested that courts of arbitration should be esta- 

 blished, to which parties who failed to agree upon 

 future rents could repair." 

 Resolutions in favour of these proposals were adopted at 

 meetings of farmers at Ongar, Chelmsford, and Braintree, 

 with the qualification, to secure unanimity, that arbitration 

 should be optional and not compulsory. ^ 



I feel bound to comment on the exclusion of this im- 

 portant evidence from the chapter on tenure. 



Further, in his report on Durham and the North Riding, 

 Mr Pringle again draws attention to the general demand on 

 the part of farmers : — 



' If nothing can be done to raise prices, rents must be 

 greatly reduced. // z's ike general opinion that in 

 order to bring about a fair and reasonable reduction 

 some system of arbitration should be set in motion. 

 Land courts, although recommended by a few, are 

 ' Pringle, Essex, p. 36. 



Y 



