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JOUENAL OF THE EOYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



that all unnecessary hindrances be removed, and that the farmer be given 

 fair play in every direction. 



Mr. S. H. Cowper Coles, F.S.I. : I do not wish to speak on behalf 

 of the landlord, but as an agent I will try and speak fairly as between 

 landlord and tenant. It is very easy in a matter of this sort to air the 

 grievances of the tenants, or those of the landlords. A discussion of 

 this sort, I take it, is to aid the Legislature, if we possibly can hereafter ; 

 to give absolutely fair play to the good landlord and the good tenant, 

 and guard ourselves against the poor landlord and the poor tenant. As 

 far as Mr. Hooper's paper goes, I congratulate him on it, and there is 

 nothing in it which I would quarrel with. I quite understand the land- 

 lords and the tenants he is referring to, who are actually enemies of the 

 grower because they will not do their part in a fair and proper way ; but 

 he was simply speaking of landlords who take advantage of the tenant's 

 position. He came to certain conclusions and put certain points before 

 us. One of these dealt with the rates. I think he said that he was in 

 favour of the rates being divided between the tenant and the landlord. 

 Now, I believe, as a matter of principle, that that policy would be bad. 

 I think the occupier of the land must pay the rates, but I venture to agree 

 that the whole incidence of taxation is absolutely wrong, and I do not 

 suppose that it hits any class of land harder than that on which fruit is 

 grown. So far as fruit growers are concerned, I agree they are taxed in 

 a way which does not apply to the community generally, but whatever the 

 rates are, I fear it would be a bad day if we divided them between landlord 

 and tenant, because it would only mean further difficulties as to rating, 

 and it would mean the rates being put by an unscrupulous landlord on to 

 the rent in some shape or form. 



I do not think we can do better than follow the remarks of the 

 Chairman and Mr. Hooper by dealing with the points of the recom- 

 mendations mentioned in the summary of the Departmental Committee 

 of the Board of Agriculture this year. Their Blue Book has come out 

 and is most valuable. It is full of information, and at the end some 

 forty suggestions are given. I am not going to propose that you should 

 consider these forty suggestions ; but there are ten of them that directly 

 touch the question under discussion this afternoon. They have already 

 been referred to by the Chairman and Mr. Hooper. It is important to 

 have something definite before us to discuss, and I would ask the Chairman 

 and the other members if we could not discuss these recommendations and 

 suggestions this afternoon. If we can agree to some we shall probably 

 be helping those who hereafter will be responsible for the legislation. 



The first recommendation I would take is No. 7 : " That the various 

 Agricultural Holdings Acts should be consolidated into one Act." We 

 are all agreed that that should be done. I do not think there can be 

 two opinions on this point. No. 8 says : " That the Market Gardeners' 

 Compensation Acts should be amended by making Section 4 retro- 

 spective." That, I think, is absolutely fair and should be accepted. 

 No. 9 says : " In cases where a tenant gives notice to quit, he shall 

 not be entitled to receive compensation unless he present to the land- 

 lord a successor who is willing to take over the holding at the same 

 rent ; that in the event of his so doing, and the landlord accepting his 



