The Opunake Times. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1895. FAIR RENT.

Opunake Times, Volume III, Issue 130, 1 October 1895, Page 2

The Opunake Times. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1895. FAIR RENT.

In our last issue we gave a summary of the Fair Rent Bill, which is at present before the House. We do not think, however, that in its present form it is likely to develop into anything like a workable measure. There is no basis given to work upon, and the whole tenor of the Bill is nothing more nor less than a dream. The Bill sets forth that a fair rent shall mean, in the case of agricultural or pastoral land, such land as a tenant, cultivating in a husbaudlike manner, can fairly be expected to make out of the laud, over and above certain costs and charges. The first stumbling block is “ cultivating in a husbandlike manner.” How is this going to be decided ? In the case of manufacturers, if you give them a certain quantity of raw material they can tell you to within a fraction what number of pounds, dozens, or yards of manufactured goods they can turn out from it, and the only element of chance they have to contend with is the demand and consequent price. With the farmer, on the contrary, the case is very different. He sows a bushel of seed, and, everything favorable, his return may be twenty fold, but should a dry season intervene the growth may be stunted and the return reduced by fifty per cent, or the growing season may be favorable and a very heavy crop bo produced; but three wet days at harvest time, and his grain is destroyed so that its value is reduced by fully one half. No matter how “ husbandlike ” his methods may be they will have no effect on these climatic elements, and we do not see how any Board of Reviewers, even with Captain Edwin as chairman, can be expected to discount them at a fair value. A landlord holding, say, 900 acres, may cut it up and let it to three tenants in blocks of 800 acres each. The first of these tenants may elect to run sheep; the second to run a dairy farm ; and the third go in for cropping. If the price of wool is high the sheep farmer may show a surplus after making all deductions for cost of working, interest on capital, and cost of maintenance of self and family of, say, ten shillings per acre, and in accordance with the Act that would be defined as the fair rent, and the landlord could claim it. If the tenant did not agree to hand it over the landlord would make application to the Board,' and according to the Act get it awarded to him. The tenant is not to be permitted to accumulate any reserve to protect himself against adverse seasons or a rainy day. The second tenant, who engaged in dairying, may, during the same year, owing to depreciation in the butter and cheese market, find that after deducting his allowances under the Act, that he has only a surplus of, say, two shillings per acre; and the third tenant, owing to an adverse season, may come out at the end of the year at a loss on the year’s transactions, and therefore would have no rent to pay. Each of these men in their own department may have been thoroughly competent and expert, but the results are attributable to circumstances altogether beyond their control. In the one case the landlord could claim ten shillings per acre, in the second two shillings per acre, and in the third case, to balance matters, he should make a contribution to the tenant, although the Act does not make provision for such a contingency. The question then .prises : Did the dairyman and the cropping man utilise the laud in a “ husbandlike manner.” Had they gone in for sheep they should have produced similar results to No. 1, and as they did not why should the landlord be the sufferer ? If, on the other hand, the dairyman produced the best result, why should the landlord suffer through the other two not following his example, and the same argument applies if the cropping man came out best. If such an Act emanated from a political economist who gained his knowledge of farming sitting behind a desk all day we could understand its being introduced, but it is beyond us to imagine how a practical farmer like the Hon J. McKenzie should be led away by such bunkum. The democratic Utopia, where no one will be rich and nobody poor, is beyond the range of practical politics while man is built on his present lines and not endowed with knowledge to forecast the future. Wealth and poverty have been close companions as far back as history reaches, and notwithstanding all efforts to the contrary, will remain close companions to the end of the chapter. Their compulsory severance is impossible, and their voluntary disposition is just as improbable. The only basis on which a compulsory rent could be fixed would be to fix a maximum legal rate of interest. Then have an independent valuation of all property in the colony similar to that for the Property Tax made every live or seven years. At the Court of Appeal, to deal with such cases, let the tenant as well as the landlord have the right to object to such valuation. The maximum rent to be charged could be fixed so as to give a return of the maximum legal rate of interest, and this rent would be subject to rise or fall as the valuation rose or fell at future assessment. Values of hind are proved to go up or down according to the rise or fail of produce. If the landlord is dissatisfied with the value so fixed let the Government acquire the property and convert the lessee into a Grown tenant. With such a method as this there would be a basis to work on and a certain fixity of tenure, which is altogether absent in the proposed Bill,