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SPURIOUS SPORTS BILL.
Second Reading deferred till Tuesday

life? ["Hear, hear!"] He wished the Secretary to the Treasury (Mr. Hanbury) had been in his place, because last year next. he criticised very severely the idea of creating preferential advantages for soldiers or sailors whose pensions enabled them to compete unfairly with civilian Second Reading deferred till Monday 4th May.

workmen.

THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER (Sir M. HICKS BEACH, Bristol, W.) said that his right hon. Friend was unavoidably prevented from being present.

MR. FENWICK accepted that statement, and said he regretted the absence of the right hon. Gentleman, because it would have been interesting to hear his opinions in reference to this Motion.

*MR. ARNOLD-FORSTER rose in his place, and claimed to move, "That the Question be now put;" but Mr. SPEAKER withheld his assent, because he thought the House was prepared to come to a decision without that Motion.

By leave of the House, Mr. ARNOLDFORSTER withdrew the Motion and moved in its stead the Resolution suggested by Mr. Brodrick:—

"That this House calls upon Her Majesty's Government to make all possible provision for the employment of reserve or time-expired soldiers and sailors of good characters, by allotting to them preferentially such posts in the public service as they are competent to fill."

Resolved, That this House calls upon Her Majesty's Government to make all possible provision for the employment of reserve or time-expired soldiers and sailors of good character by allotting to them preferentially such posts in the public service as they are competent to fill.

RIGHTS OF WAY PROCEDURE
(SCOTLAND) BILL.

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CRIMINAL LAW AMENDMENT BILL.

Second Reading deferred till To

morrow.

JUSTICES OF THE PEACE BILL.

Second Reading deferred till Tuesday

next.

LETTING OF SPORTING RIGHTS BILL.
Second Reading deferred till Tuesday

next.

ABATTOIRS BILL.
Second Reading deferred till Tuesday

next.

Mr. C. Fenwick.

CONSOLIDATED FUND (No. 9) BILL.
Read the Third time and passed.

DISEASES OF ANIMALS BILL. Committee deferred till Thursday.

COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEAL BILL. Second Reading deferred from Tomorrow till Wednesday 29th April.

House adjourned at a quarter after Twelve o'clock.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.

Wednesday, 22nd April 1896.

COLONIAL MARRIAGES BILL.

Second Reading deferred from Friday till Thursday 30th April.

FIARS PRICES (SCOTLAND). Return [presented 21st April] to be printed. No. 146.]

GRIFFIN'S DIVORCE BILL.

Message from the Lords, That they communicate Minutes of Evidence and Proceedings in the House of Lords on the Second Reading of Griffin's Divorce Bill, together with the Documents deposited in the case, as desired by this House, with a request that the same may be returned.

STATUTE LAW REVISION BILLS, &c.

Twelve o'clock.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT (IRELAND) PROVISIONAL ORDER (No. 1) BILL.

On the Order for the adjourned Debate on the Motion (15th April) for committal of this Bill to the Select Committee on the Belfast Corporation Bill,

MR. VESEY KNOX (Londonderry) said he understood that it would not be necessary further to trouble the House on this Motion. The point they took on the last occasion was that the Armagh Provisional Order applied the rating sections of the Towns Improvement Act, and did not apply the other sections of that Act, by which, among other things, it would have been possible to have a division into wards. The hon. Member for Louth said that he would withdraw the Motion if the

no

Message from the Lords, That they Attorney-General for Ireland could show propose that the Joint Committee on a precedent for this course. The Attorney Statute Law Revision and Consolidation General had said that there was Bills do meet in Committee Room A precedent exactly in point, but he had on Wednesday the 29th instant, at consented that the whole of the Towns Improvement Act should be applied by a clause to be inserted in this Bill on condition that provision was made for the existing officers not being dismissed without due cause. In the circumstances, he thought that was a fair condition.

STATUTE LAW REVISION BILLS, &c. Lords Message [this day], relating to the Joint Committee on Statute Law Revision Bills, &c., considered ::

Ordered, That the Committee appointed by this House to join with the Committee appointed by the Lords on Statute Law Revision Bills and Consolidation Bills do meet the Lords' Committee in Committee Room A on Wednesday the 29th April, at Twelve of the clock, as proposed by their Lordships.

Ordered, That a Message be sent to the Lords to acquaint them therewith. (Mr. Attorney General.)

BURGLARY BILL [H.L.].
Read the First time; to be read a
Second time upon Monday next, and to
be printed. [Bill 186.]

VOL. XXXIX. [FOURTH SERIES.]

*THE ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. JOHN ATKINSON, Londonderry, N.) said, he had received a letter from the hon. Member for Mid Armagh stating that the Town Commissioners of Armagh had passed a resolution to the effect that they were willing to have all the clauses of the Town Improvements Act extended to Armagh, if some introduced provision were to protect existing officials from arbitrary dismissal. In Committee there would be no difficulty in introducing a clause to give the desired protection.

MR. EDWARD M'HUGH (Armagh, S.) by leave, withdrew the Motion of which he had given notice.

Bill committed.
3 U

LOCAL GOVERNMENT (IRELAND)
PROVISIONAL ORDER (No. 2) BILL.
Order read for resuming Adjourned
Debate on Question [12th April], "That
the Bill be committed to the Select
Committee on the Belfast Corporation
Bill."

Question again proposed.
Motion, by leave, withdrawn.
Bill committed.

ORDERS OF THE DAY.

LAND TENURE AND RENT REVISION
BILL.

the present Agricultural Holdings Act, the Hares and Rabbits Act, and other Acts, which undoubtedly, to some extent, modified the right of contracts as between landlord and tenant. The present system of free contract, modified to the extent he had indicated, had undoubtedly resulted in late years in agricultural land in England going backward instead of forward in cultivation. The President of the Local Government Board on Monday made use of this expression: "The present state of things had resulted in a terrible deterioration in the land itself, and in consequent loss to the community." He did not think that this view was in the least overstated. The truth was, that not enough money was spent on the land at present; there were not enough labourers on the land, and the land was labourstarved. This condition of things was not universal; there were still places where land was in a very high state of cultivation; but the state he had described was very common, and he

*MR. R. J. PRICE (Norfolk, E.), in moving the Second Reading of this Bill, said that many of the reasons which might guide the House in coming to a decision on the principles of this Bill thought that it might fairly be called were discussed last Monday on the Agri- general. Hon. Members might say that cultural Rating Bill. On that occasion there were other trades in a state of he was glad to find that hon. Members terrible distress-small shopkeepers for opposite held the same opinion as he did instance-and why, therefore, bring foras to the condition of agricultural land ward legislation to interfere in contracts in England and Wales at the present between a special class. He thought moment. During the last Session of the that the action of the Government on late Parliament, a Bill which in many Monday_was an answer to that argurespects was on all fours with the present ment. There were two great national was read a second time in the House of evils arising from the present condition Commons, and the principles under- of land and the depopulation of the lying that Bill were further affirmed by country districts. As the land was dethe Central Chamber of Agriculture. In teriorating, so surely was it producing addition to this, he judged from a Bill less of our home food supply. It was which was before the House this Session also well known that town populations amending the law relating to agricultural gradually degenerated when kept in tenancies, introduced by some hon. towns. A few generations carried perMembers opposite, that there were many ceptible deterioration in physique, and hon. Members who held that some con- the strength of our population had been siderable alteration ought to be made in kept up entirely through the streams of the present law governing agricultural fresh blood which the country districts holdings. There was also the Govern- poured into the towns. But the present ment Measure dealing with the subject. condition of agriculture might probably The present Bill, unlike some others, result in a great national disasterundoubtedly did modify existing con- namely, a distinct lowering of some of our tracts as well as to some extent establish finest national physical characteristics. a restriction on future contracts as be- He believed that this Bill would tend to tween landlord and tenant. Interfer- stop the growth of this evil, and even ence between these classes of contracts, if some modification of private rights as between other classes of contracts, were contained in the Bill, he believed was by no means unprecedented; but as that if they could secure those great between landlord and tenant, they had national objects, the modification would

farmer, and that is a fair rent fixed by an "There is only one thing that can benefit the impartial tribunal."

be justified from his point of view. I caused the farmers' extreme difficulties. [Cheers.] He had always considered Every argument used the other day by that landlords were as good as any other the President of the Local Government people. [Mr. DAVITT: "Of what use Board with reference to the burden of are they?"] A resident country land- rates applied tenfold to the burden of lord was very often of the greatest pos- rent. Speaking at Hull, on August sible use. He was very often a public- 6th 1885, the present Secretary for the spirited, generous man. [Mr. DAVITT: Colonies said :"With other people's money."] Against landlords as a class he did not wish to say a word, but there were exceptions among them to the rule of excellence, there were absentees, and most of It was a fact that many a good farmer them, like the rest of mankind, not who worked hard and lived economically unnaturally wished to sell the commodity found himself on each succeeding New of which they had the disposal at the Year's Day poorer than he was 12 best possible price. Some landlords had months before. The reason of this was no money to spend upon the improve- that he had been paying more rent than ment of their land, and others who had the land was worth. Hon. Gentlemen money refrained from expending it in opposite would, no doubt, say that rents that way because they saw no likelihood had nothing to do with low prices; that of obtaining an adequate return. The farmers could impose their own condicapital which he desired to see invested tions on the landlords; and that the in the land for the purpose of increasing real remedy for agricultural depression its fertility and providing employment would be to improve prices. He agreed for the labourers was the tenants' capital. with the opinion expressed by the SecreAt present, a tenant who expended tary for the Colonies in 1885, and did capital on a farm was liable to lose it not believe that prices could be improved when he left the holding, and to have by artificial means. The only way to the rent raised on his own expenditure. relieve the farmer was by diminishing In the discussion of last year the President his burdens-the burden of rent in the of the Local Government Board seemed first place; secondly, the burden of to think he could dispose of that tithes; and thirdly, the burden of rates. argument by pointing out that of late In their endeavour to alleviate these years there had been few cases of increase burdens, the Government were beginning of rent. It was true that rents had at the bottom instead of at the top, been lowered, but the tenant who which was where they ought to begin. had farmed well and cultivated the land Last year the President of the Local to the highest pitch did not get the same Government Board said that there was remissions as the bad tenant. [Minis- no great complaint about the rents, and terial cries of "Oh !"] He referred that that showed that the rents were hon. Members who doubted the accuracy fair. On this point he would like to read of his statement to the evidence given a paragraph from the minority Report before the Royal Commission. Some of the Royal Commission on Agricultural tenants did not spend money on their Depression. The hon. Member for East farms because they had no capital; Northamptonshire said in his Report :some, no doubt, had not conducted their business well, and others were fond of other pursuits besides farming. The President of the Local Government Board would probably say that they paid too much in rates. For his part he could not believe that they had lost their capital through excessive rating. An ordinary farmer holding 300 acres in Norfolk, at £1 per acre, might possibly be saved £15 by the operation of the Rating Bill of the Government, but it was not a sum of that kind that had

"It may be assumed that where accounts are

kept, in general there will have been more organised and persistent effort to make ends meet. And, in fact, these accounts include several cases of farms where there has been exceptional success during the bad times. Taking the 63 accounts, which seem sufficiently precise for our purpose, and drawn from the following counties, Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Beds, Northants, North Riding, Warwickshire, Herts, Lincolnshire, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, Cambridgeshire, Dorset, South Wilts, and Northumberland, it appears that these accounts cover 36,648 acres, and that the average tenants' profit per annum over the whole has been

high prices.

£6,930 15s. 11d., the average annual loss has spread complaint on the part of the been £4,615 15s. 11d. Deducting losses from farmer. The farmer's ideal had been profits, the net profit over the area of 36,648 acres has been the annual average of only £2,315 to be divided among 63 tenants. In other words, these accounts, so far as they can be taken as an illustration of the general position, and I have given above cogent reasons for inferring that they place the position in a much more favourable light than if we had before us the accounts of the unfortunate men, who are reported to be on the verge of bankruptcy in many districts, these accounts show that the average annual net profit over these typical farms has been only 1s. 3d. to the occupier."

He had looked to Protection or Bimetallism, or a sudden change in the market before going for a further reduction in his rent; but they knew that ideal was hopeless, and that the only chance was to get the rent and other burdens made easier. A farmer had written to him giving him the reasons why it was not possible for him to go more strongly for a reduction of rent. He said, in the course of his letter :

"It, no doubt, appears to those unacquainted with agriculture, inconceivable that landowners are receiving rents altogether beyond value, and that tenants can be found willing to pay such rents. A study of agricultural law and conditions of tenancy will, however, at once a tenant show the intense difficulty that and the enormous loss he suffers on leaving a farmer experiences in obtaining rent reduction, holding. Consequently he is not in a position to assert himself and grapple with the diffiIf he approaches his culties that beset him. landlord upon the subject of rent reduction, he is instantly referred to the agent, and his request is at once refused. If the farmer goes further and vacates the holding, the cruel and unjust laws not only permit, but actually encourage the landlord to confiscate the whole of the improvements that the tenant farmer has carried out. This means that the farmer on quitting a farm is deprived of property in the shape of manures, plantations, buildings and various other things, that frequently cost him hundreds of pounds. It is true that there is an Agricultural Holdings Act, under which a tenant can claim for some improvements, but it is so clumsily drawn, and requires the fulfilconditions, that landlords and agents manage ment of so many unreasonable and awkward entirely to evade its operation in nine cases out of ten, and so purloin the tenant's property. Rather than be deprived of his possessions wholesale in this manner, a farmer usually against adversity, and hopes that times may prefers to continue his tenancy and struggle alter, the landlord continuing to exact excessive rent until the tenant's capital is exhausted and his ruin completed. He is then turned out and another tenant takes the farm, frequently at a rent that would not have been accepted from his predecessor."

The hon. Member went on to show in his Report that the average rent, subject of course to deductions, was about a guinea an acre, which would mean, he supposed, about 15s. net. In the face of such facts as these, he did not understand how anyone could affirm that the landlord had borne his proper share of the economical fall in prices. It was obvious that in such cases as those referred to by the hon. Member in his Report, practically the whole of the profit on the farm was paid away in rent, and the tenant had been living on his capital. It was quite natural that landlords should wish to get the best prices they could for their commodity, and it was true that reductions and remissions had been granted. Remissions, however, left a farm more burdened with rates than it would be if the allowance had been made in a permanent form, and it was obvious, also, that the reductions made had either been made too late, or had not been large enough, or perhaps both. The farmer was generally represented as a grumbler, but, as a matter of fact, during the last few years he had exhibited a patience worthy of Job, and his fidelity to the landlord, as disclosed in the evidence given before the Royal Commission, was exemplary. Some landlords complained that they received no interest on sums expended on buildings and improvements. They forgot that these improvements, when made, became became part of the farm, He did not believe that was very much and that their value as investments exaggerated. It represented pretty depended upon the money-producing truly the condition of affairs. At any capacity of the farm as а whole. rate, the writer was entitled to speak It did not matter what the cost of build- for the county in which he lived, Worings and improvements might have been cestershire, where he told him the rents to the landlord, the proper rent was were 50 per cent. higher than they ought only what the land was worth as to be. The fall in rent did not in the a money earning commodity. It was least agree with the fall in the margin of said that rents must be on the whole profit. On cereals the latter had almost fair because there had been no wide- entirely gone, but rents had only been Mr. R. J. Price.

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