530 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



compensation for nominal improvements in cases where no incoming 

 tenant could be found. It has also been urged that, in districts where 

 fruit is not yet commercially grown, this provision might deter a tenant 

 from starting the industry, on account of the possibility of his not being 

 able to arrange for a successor. It may, however, be pointed out that this 

 local difficulty of finding a successor would equally deter the landlord 

 from letting for fruit-growing in such districts, as has been shown to 

 have actually happened under the existing state of the law by the evidence 

 of Mr. Wheler and others. The Committee, after much consideration, 

 are of opinion that this proposal contains the elements of the best solution 

 of a most difficult problem. 



36. With regard to the other suggestions made to them, the Committee 

 hold that the Market Gardeners' Compensation Acts should be made 

 retrospective, so that a tenant should be entitled to compensation for any 

 improvements made by him before the Acts came into operation, on any 

 holding which, at that date, was in use or cultivation as a market garden 

 within the knowlege of the landlord. If any alterations or modifications 

 of the Acts should be made on the lines suggested in the previous 

 paragraph, such modifications should apply in this case also. They also 

 adopt the suggestion that the State should be empowered to lend money 

 to landlords to help them to pay compensation under the Acts, provided 

 that the Board of Agriculture is satisfied that the valuation has been 

 properly made and that there is good security. The Board already has 

 power to create legal rent-charges for such purposes under the Agricultural 

 Holdings Act, 1883, as amended by the Act of 1900, and has exercised this 

 power in the case of several fruit plantations. The Committee propose 

 that in such cases the Treasury should be authorised to advance the money. 

 No doubt this provision would not often be used, if the Compensation 

 Acts be amended as suggested above ; but if no such amendment be made, 

 it would be a great assistance to landlords, and would tend to encourage 

 them to let land for fruit. 



37. The Committee wish further to point out that, although it is not 

 permissible to contract out of the Market Gardeners' Compensation Acts, 

 their deterrent effects would be to some extent removed by the employ- 

 ment of a provision of the original Act of 1883 (section 5), which permits 

 a landlord and tenant to make what is called a " particular agreement,'' 

 by means of which a scale of compensation can be agreed upon in 

 advance, provided only that it is "fair and reasonable." There can be 

 no doubt that a great deal of fruit land is held under such particular 

 agreements, which in many cases have proved to be thoroughly satis- 

 factory. The Committee feel that a more general use of this provision 

 would be most beneficial. 



38. So far the Committee have been considering only the case where 

 the fruit grower is a tenant, and have been endeavouring to solve some 

 of the many difficulties which arise from this condition of affairs. The 

 great majority of fruit growers, probably, are tenants, but, in the opinion 

 of the Committee, it would be far more satisfactory if they were the 



