LANDED ESTATES.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 9955, 3 April 1895, Page 4

LANDED ESTATES.

Tho English Royal Commission on Agriculture U atill aitiiog and taking evidence. We quote the testimony of one witness : — Mr W. H. Hal), of Sixmile Bottom, Newmarket, stated that he owned estates in Berkshire, Oxfordshire, and Cambridgeshire, in all 8000 acres. Els net income in the shape of rent repreeentpd less than 2 per cant on bis outlay. In Cambridgeshire hlB net Income had fallen from £3478 in 18S3 to €1070 in 1892. There were 167 dwelling-houses and between HO and 40 sets of farm bnildinga to keep iv repair, and in round numbers his expenditure on improve" ments during the last 20 years had been about £50,000. The building of cottagea was not remunerative from a pecuniary point of view ; but the provision of suitable accommodation in this direction had, he thought, a material influence on the social development oi the laboring classes. In the ! present state of agriculture, landlords in Bast Aoglia could not spend another pound in cottage building. He was ot opinion, therefere, that the local authorities should atep in and acquire land for this purpose. He had been making reductions of reat steadily alDce 1872, and the rents now were from 30 to 40 per cent lower than in the year referred to. The rents ranged from 28* to 30s an acre, inclusive of rates, roads, and fences. His allotments had been an unmitigated success. There were 22 small holdings on the estate. He thonght it essential that a small holder shonld not be entirely dependent on the land. The moat successful examples in his experience were those where a few cows were kept. Cows ware, he considered, the only means whereby a laborer could rise to the position of a small holder. The wages of laborers in his district had risen from 11s in 1872 to 13j, and had fallen quite lately to 10 i per week. He suggested that a duty of 5s per quarter should ba placed on foreign barley, and that tbe money arising from this sonrca shonld be allooated to local authorities in proportion to the arable area of their respective districts.