THE Marlborough Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. TUESDAY, JUNE 26, 1888.

Marlborough Daily Times, Volume X, Issue 314, 26 June 1888, Page 2

THE Marlborough Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. TUESDAY, JUNE 26, 1888.

It is rather significant that the question of landlord and tenant should form the subject of legislation in a new country like this. The evils that have arisen out of the system of land tenure in Great Britain are no doubt correctly attributed to the feudal system of the middle ages. But here, we have no such legacy to urge as a reason for legislating in the direction of interfering between landlord and tenant, and yet at this early stage in our history we find the evil has assumed such proportions that the State is asked to arbitrate. Strictly speaking, wo have in the Fair Bent and Brice of Land Bill, introduced by Sir H. Atkinson, a modified attempt to deal with a branch of land tenure that has formed the principal factor in Irish discontent. The proposed legislation is of an advanced type, and although it does not go far enough, it affirms a desirable principle, the extension of which is but a question of time. Tho Bill in its prestmt form is intended to apply only to Crown tenants, or tenants of lands vested in or under the control or management of any public authority. Its introduction is mainly due to an agitation that has b een going on in the South for some vtime past amongst tenants of educational reserves, deferred payment and perpetual lease lands, for a reduction in rents. At the time that these lands were leasod or sold the colony was in a much more flourishing condition than it has been for several years past; stock and’produce of all kinds brought good prices, and in the belief that these high prices would continue settlers were induced to offer rents that they now find they cannot pay, for the simple reason that it is impossible to extract it in any shape or form from the land. The position t of these settlers is this : They .must either throw up their leases, mnd thus join the ranks of the untemployed, or rents must be reduced ito a scale in keeping with the shrinkage of values of all kinds of J produce.lt is to afford relief to 1

such settlers, then, that the Bill ,has been introduced. It will be interesting to watch its progress through the House. Already the objection has been taken that it is not general enough in its scope—that it should apply not only to public lands but also to tenants of private estates who suffer from the same circumstances.