162 The Agricultural Holdings {England) Act, 1875. 
sum awarded (§ 34). They are bound also to furnish the par- 
ticulars classed under the other five headings ; but with regard to 
these five, they need only specify the facts " as far as reasonably 
may be." If they fail in complying with the imperative direc- 
tions of the Act in making the award, or if they award a sum 
generally for compensation, without giving the items here 
required, the award will be invalid ; and, upon appeal by 
either party, may be set aside. 
The word used throughout the Act in connection with im- 
provements is " execute." In speaking of breach of covenant 
by landlord or tenant, or of waste by the tenant, the words used 
are " commit," or " permit." The same phraseology is fol- 
lowed in § 32, requiring that the award shall give particulars ; 
and as the matters referred include the compensation due to 
landlord as well as tenant (§ 21), it is clear that the particulars 
to be given include those relating to the landlord's counter- 
claim on account of breach of covenant and waste, as well as 
particulars relating to the tenant's claim on account of improve- 
ments and breach. Thus, in the event of a landlord's counter- 
claim in respect of waste or breach, a specification of the 
" act " or " thing " complained of, and the time at which each 
was committed or permitted, will disclose, if it relates " to a 
matter of husbandry," whether it is a proper subject of com- 
pensation under the Act, as occurring within four years of the 
determination of the tenancy (§ 19, sub-sect.). Both tenant 
and landlord, when furnished with the terms of the award, will 
be in an equally good position for deciding whether they will 
dispute it. Besides the particulars which are obligatory under 
the Act, the award can hardly be reckoned complete unless it 
distinguishes and specifies the deductions from tenant's com- 
pensation for taxes, rates, tithe-rentchargc, and rent (§ 16) ; and 
specifics also the nature and money-value of the "benefit" given 
to a tenant in consideration of his executing the impi^ovement, 
and pleaded by the landlord as a set-off (§ 17). 
Another matter with which the award will usually deal will 
be the costs of the reference. On this important subject Parlia- 
ment has given to the referee, or referees, or umpire, the full 
powers which arc ])ossessed by a Court of Equity. They will 
be governed in deciding upon the question by " the reasonable- 
ness or unreasonableness of the claim of either party," whether 
as to amount or otherwise, and will consider " all the circum- 
of the agent's oLjections and the tenant's apathy with respect to the working of 
the Act. At tlio same time they present no ical diHiculty, bnt, I should say, aro 
decidedly more advanlagcous than the i)rtsent system of stating a lump sum, 
wliich is no guide to the value of the several improvements which have been 
executed. — -Vo/e by Mr. J. D. JJcnt, 
