(England and Wales) Bill. A BILL To provide facilities for the Sale of Land to occupying Tenants; and to extend the System of Peasant Proprietary in England and Wales. Presented by Mr. Jesse Collings, Sir John Dorington, Mr. Spear, Sir John Kennaway, Mr. Herbert Roberts, Sir Lewis Molesworth, Colonel Kenyon-Slaney, Mr. William Mitchell, and LieutenantColonel Pryce-Jones. Ordered, by The House of Commons, to be Printed 22 February 1905. The Bill is in Two Parts: Part I. "Acquisition of Land by Tenants.' Part II." Purchase of Land for Smaller Holdings." No tenancy-at-will or with a year's notice, however favourable the conditions of compensation for unexhausted improvements, can give the farmer security beyond the year. .. The "good understanding" which has hitherto as a rule protected the English farmer under a yearly tenancy will not for many years longer be able to stand the inevitable pressure of home and foreign competition. (Sir James Caird.) ... The magic of property turns sand to gold. . . . Give a man the secure possession of a bleak rock and he will turn it into a garden. (Arthur Young.) The farmer compared with the proprietor is as a merchant who trades with borrowed capital compared with one who trades with his own. . . . The station of a farmer besides is from the nature of things inferior to that of the proprietor. (Adam Smith.) CHAPTER I SYNOPSIS OF PURCHASE OF LAND (ENGLAND AND WALES) BILL, 1905 PART I OCCUPYING OWNERSHIP Part I. provides means to enable the tenant to acquire the freehold of the farm he rents. When the landlord and tenant may agree for the sale of a farm, and on the price to be paid for the same, the Board of Agriculture may, after making due inquiries, advance to the tenant the whole of the purchase-money. The repayment of the advance so made is to be by an annual instalment (purchase annuity) at the rate of 3(three pounds five shillings) per cent of the whole sum. The three pounds five shillings per cent is made up of two pounds fifteen shillings per cent for interest and ten shillings per cent for sinking fund. This sinking fund will in a certain number of years recoup the whole amount advanced, and no further payments will be made. The advances and rates of repayment are the same as those accorded to the Irish tenant under the provisions of the Irish Land Act, 1903. As soon as the agreement for purchase is completed the tenant becomes immediately the owner of the farm, subject to payment of the annual instalment and to certain other conditions. The only conditions of importance are those contained in Clauses 11 and 12, by which subdivision and subletting of the farm are forbidden except with the consent of the Board of Agriculture, and restrictions are placed upon the power of mortgaging. Under Clause 10, the farmer, if he is able and willing to do so, can at any time redeem the outstanding purchase annuity, by the payment of a lump sum. No holding of leasehold tenure can be sold under the Act unless the lease, under which the landlord is possessed, is one renewable for ever, or for a term of years of which not less than sixty are unexpired at the time of the sale. Definitions are given in the Bill of the terms "absolute owner," "tenant for life," and "limited owner." Provisions are made for the distribution of the purchase money among the persons entitled to, and having charges upon, or otherwise interested in any holding sold under the Act. The sum to be advanced for the purposes of this part of the Bill is limited to ten millions sterling. The Bill, like the Irish measure, contains no compulsory provisions. It seeks only to give to English farmers advantages and opportunities similar to those given to Irish tenants by the Act of 1903. CHAPTER II OCCUPYING OWNERSHIP (continued) It is difficult to see how any valid objection can be raised to the principle of the Bill in any quarter, for, as Sir James Caird stated some years ago: "There is not a single reason in favour of exceptional aid from the Treasury for Ireland that is not equally applicable to the rest of the United Kingdom." It will be noticed that on the completion of the purchase the farmer becomes the actual owner of the land, subject to the yearly instalments. He has free dom of cultivation, security for outlay, and every other incentive for industry, energy, and enterprise, inasmuch as all improvements made and the result of all money spent on the land remain his own. Subject to the yearly instalments and other conditions named, he can at any time sell his farm, or can devise it to those who come after him. But the holding must always be in the hands of an occupying owner. The amount of an instalment, by reason of the very low rate of interest on which it is based, will, as a rule, work out less, in some cases much less, than the rent previously paid. Nearly all other nations in Europe, some by revolution, others by wise statesmanship, have adopted "cultivating ownership" as the basis of their land tenure. Great Britain (no longer Ireland) almost, if not quite alone, retains a system based on "landlord, tenant, and labourer." The results of that system, as experience shows, are disastrous to all concerned. |