A LAND BILL FOR ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1322, 10 December 1881, Page 2

A LAND BILL FOR ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND.

(From the Daily News). The Farmers' Alliance have made up their minds to demand a Land Bill for England and Scotland. A meeting of the general committee of the Alliance held yesterday, and presided . over by Mr. James Howard, M.P., resolved that the outline of such a Bill should be prepared at once and should be submitted to a conference ;of the. members generally in November, and that the chairman should, in the meantime ask Mr. Gladstone to receive a deputation on the subject. This is prompt action, but it is what was to be expected. The resolution calling for the preparation of an English and Scptch Land Bill opens with a few words of preamble, which declare that " the prolonged depression in agriculture, followed by another disastrous harvest," render imperative the introduction of remedial measures into Parliament. It is likely that exception will be taken to this way of putting the case, and that a good deal of argument and remonstrance will be employed to discredit it. Why, will be asked, should Parliament be called upou : to legislate because the harvest has been bad, or even because successive harvests have been bad ? Can Government be held responsible for weeping skies or for chill winds coming at the wrong time ? Can three readings of a Bill in the. two Houses of Parliament give us the climate of Kgypt or of Southern Russia 1 You, the members of the Farmers' Alliance, do not point to anything defective in the present land tenure system ; you only speak of agricultural depression caused by bad weather. The answer, however, is more easy even than the objection, besides being infinitely more solid and substantial. The Farmers' Alliance have always since their formation been complaining of the present land tenure system. They were formed to be an organised objection to that system. But they know, as everyone knows, that in this country we do not alter our existing systems in deference co the strongest theoretical or abstract objections. It is not alone that Parliament will not seriously trouble itself, about theories and abstract arguments, but that the very classes who have the most reason to complain of bad systems will not take the trouble to . complain in any organised and effective way so long as things are going tolerably well, then, and indeed only then, the attention of the Legislature and the public can be secured for the complaints that have to be made against a defective system, and the suggestions that can be offered for its remedy. That is what we all complacently describe as our practical way. It is in truth the only possible way, so long as the Legislature of the country is burdened with more work than it can get through. The more pressing and clamorous oase must be dealt with first.

But the defects of our land system are so great and so practical that they would have to be dealt with some time or other, even if agricultural depression and a succession of bad harvests had not come to force them on the attention of the Legislature. Our land is like a mummy swathed up in the complicated bands and folds and unnatural compresses of an antiquated system. The remains of ancient feudalisms cling around it everywhere. Some at least of the evils which shock us so much in Ireland are to be found rampant in many parts of England and Scotland. There is one consequence of the defective systems in England which is not known in Ireland, and which, one would think, ought to be of especial concern to English landlords. The land in many places is going out of cultivation. Farms are left unoccupied ; they are thrown upon the landlord's hands. We have lately been publishing a remarkable series of communications on u Dilapidated Husbandry." In one which appeared in our columns last Friday the writer began by saying that "had the Parliamentary return of unoccupied farms included a column for holdings which the owners would let if they could, the great extent of the area in many counties must have surprised the public very much." This was his text; he went on to illustrate and enforce it by a variety of telling instances taken from the actual condition of things in many counties at the present moment. It is not worth while for a tenant in many parts of England to give to a farm that cultivation whiph alone aould do justice to its natural productive oapaoity. His rents are too high 5 he has no security of tenure ; he has no assurance that he will be allowed to remain in enjoyment of the fruits of his own outlay and improvements, or receive compensation if he has to give up his farm. Nor is it always, we might even say often, in the power of a landlord to reduce the rents adequately, to endeavour to introduce a really better system, or to throw the land into the market. The landlord succeeds, in a large "proportion of cases, to property burdened with the responsibility of meeting pertain annual charges, the amount of which is fixed however his rental may fall or his farms be thrown upon his hands, and he cannot slip his neck out of the collar altogether by selling his land. The wisdom of our ancestors has provided against such a method of relief.

The evils we have touched upon are only a few of those which result from the collision between hew conditions and obsolete systems. We have been anxious chiefly at the present moment to point attention to the fact that in many cases the landlords themselves are heavy sufferers* and are powerless to make' any change for the better It is certainly not surprising that the. Farmers' Alliance should think the jime has come for taking some decided steps to bring about a comprehensive reform in the land system. The Mark Lane Express dwells upon.th4l fact that ?' ,witli :the exception of a few favored districts; in Wales and in Ireland, agricultural prospects -have darkened con-1 siderably during the week." , They are now so : bad that, according to the same authority, " it is difficult to find a redeeming feature any where.'' Ofcourse it is evea

yet possible; that "a fine autumn," supposing we are lucky enongh'7 ' to get it, may brighten the prospect to s6me extent; bat we fear it could hardly so brighten it as tor- make the demands of the Farmers' Alliance seem unnecessary or unreasonable. Indeed, every 'one who thought ;over the subject at all roust have felt that; the passing of the Land Haw Act for Ireland would be followed by an immediate demand for land reform in England and-Scotland. Ireland had to be attended to first, becauselreland,beingalmost altogether "an agricultural country, found the grievance everywhere, and found it intolerable, and had been exasperated into • a condition riot far removed from rebellion. But we cannot allow the farmers ■ and laborers of England and Scotland to linger on for years and years under their grievances merely because they are not" likely to get into a rebellious mood. Wo see with great satisfaction that the Farmers' Alliance are not; going to allow themselves to be deluded t>y the new cry for Reciprocity, or what is called;; F a hr . Trade. They have "passed, resolution speaking their mind very;-* | freely and emphatically on that subject. They declare that, "any concerted; action between the farmers,, of the kingdom and those manufacturers' who are' seeking to revive protection would be most unwise on the part of the farmers," and for the good reason, first of all, that "if it were possible by united effort to reverse the national policy of free ; trade and to restore protection the first interest to be sacrificed would be that of agriculture." They.do not merely.state this ; they make it clear in a few sentences. They bluntly, but very "truth"-"" fully, describe the agitation for fair trade as " a delusion and a snare"—words often quoted indeed, but which will have to be quoted often yet a? long as certain agitations are able to flourish and find adherents. -