34^ AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION 



The inference is drawn that " rents are now, generally 

 speaking, adjusted to the conditions of the farming industry," 

 and *' the main burden of agricultural depression now rests 

 upon the owners and not upon the occupiers of the soil." 



It is, in my opinion, difficult to reconcile these conclusions, 

 and the a priori reasoning on which they are based, with the 

 admissions, that " readjustments " have not been universal, 

 and, in paragraph 445, that farmers do pay too high rents 

 from reluctance to lose their homes and to sacrifice their 

 capital. 



I submit further that these assumptions and conclusions 

 are in conflict with most of the evidence given by tenant 

 farmers, and, as regards making competition the measure of 

 rent, are refuted by the evidence of some of the best re- 

 presentatives of the landed interest. This is fully shown in 

 Chapters VIII and IX of this Report. 



I regret also that in par. 445 there is no recognition 

 of, or attempt to meet, the statements made by the great 

 majority of tenant farmer witnesses that reductions of rent 

 have usually been refused to old tenants, which on a change 

 of tenancy have to be made for new tenants. It is really 

 beside the point to affirm that tenants go on, of their own 

 accords, paying too high rents in order to retain their homes 

 and avoid the loss of removing and selling off. 



In reference to other chapters of the Majority Report 

 I have further to state that in some respects the chapter on 

 small holdings, and especially its lack of practical suggestions 

 seems to me unsatisfactory, and that question has, therefore, 

 been dealt with in a special chapter. 



The same remark applies to some extent to the subject 

 of railway rates, to which I attach great and urgent im- 

 portance. 



