342 AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION 



chapter contains no reference whatever to the evidence 

 given by Mr Pennant, a Welsh landowner. 



Mr Pennant strongly approves of official arbitrators being 

 appointed by the Board of Agriculture, men of character 

 and local knowledge, who would command the confidence 

 of landlord and tenant, and be independent of both. 



With such arbitrators " the sitting tenant would get what 

 he wanted, without having any unpleasantness with liis 

 landlord." 



Asked if the sitting tenant who had made improvements 

 " would not be entitled to have a reduction from his rent 

 according to the value of the compensation due for that 

 improvement," Mr Pennant replied : — 



"Any matter that they chose could be referred to a com- 

 petent individual. I will take the case of myself. I 

 had spent a considerable amount of capital on a farm 

 and improved it very much ; I thought in conse- 

 quence that the rent ought to be so much, in fact, 

 we agreed that it should be, but when the improve- 

 ments were done, the tenant thought the rent was 

 too much ; we agreed to refer that to a person in 

 whom we both had thorough confidence, and he 

 decided for us, and I acted on his decision. I and 

 the tenant were fortunately able to find such an 

 individual. I want to create individuals of that 

 character, and it can best be done by the Board of 

 Agriculture, and then I am sure that landlords and 

 tenants would make use of them in the future, and 

 would be glad of them." 

 " Of course a sitting tenant should not be rented upon 

 the unexhausted value of his improvements ; this was 

 a case of increased rent in consequence of improve- 

 ments done by myself, but the tenant had helped me 

 in doing them, and we wanted a person to decide 

 fairly between us, and we secured the person." 

 " They would employ these arbitrators whenever there 

 was a difficulty, and you would have practically no 

 litigation." 

 " All cases under the Act must be referred to them.'^ " 

 Other omissions and inadequate or misleading references 

 or quotations may be pointed out in this chapter. 



I have selected the above as a sufficient illustration of my 



' 57,421—57,479. 



