Fair Bent.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5271, 30 May 1895, Page 2

Fair Bent.

As bearing on the proposal to establish Fair Bent Courta in New Zealand, the following extract from the report of the Royal Commission on the Highlands and Islands, with reference to the working of the Scotch Crofters Act, will be read with interest. The Commissioners say :— "The fixing of a fair rent has to a large extent removed from the minds of crofters the sense of hardship arising from the belief that they were made to pay rent on their own improvements, ox otherwise made to pay at an excessive rate for soil of a poor quality. The combination of a fair rent with statutory security of tenure has not only taken away or allayed causes of discontent, but has imparted a new spirit to crofters and imbued them with fresh energy. More attention iB being paid to cultivation, to rotation of crops, to reolamation of outruns, to fencing, and to the formation or repair of township roads; but most, conspicuous of all the effects per* ceptible is that upon buildings, including both dwelling-houses and steadings. In a considerable number of localities we found new and improved houses and steadings erected by the crofters themselves ainoe the passing of the Act. The percentage o£ arrears cancelled has terminated liabilities which could never have been met." This testimony, added to the records of the good done by the Fair Bent Courts in Ireland, ought to dispose of the objections that are offered in this country to the introduction of a similar system. Instead of making tenants idle, dependent and unambitious, as has been contended here, the system has quite the opposite effect. In general, the leaseholders of New Zealand have all that is necessary in the way of fixity of tenure, but the want of a system of revising 'rents is very much felt, and it iB hoped that Parliament will supply this want during the coming session.