The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-11-02 00:00:00

TENANT-RPAHIT IN ENGLAND.

An important ',meting of the Staffordshire Chamber
sif Agriculture waa held on Saturday at the " Swan "
'Hotel, Staffo, if, for the purpose of receiving the report
of the como,ittre appointed to consider the subject of
, .and tenur a. Mr. Neville, Prod lent of the Chamber,
occupieo. the chair, and among those present were the
Earl 'A Harrowhy, KG., Colonel Dyott, MT,
Cute ael Lev ett, Mr. IL 11. Mashes, Mr. C. B. Keel-
10r, &c.
The Secretary read the report of the committee he
follows :
" Trvvr committee, having fully considered the lineation of
land t entire, has um vLd at the.mosclosipn that Is order to

Itrirm-ii;el;ei!posalt...t cylt.izatima of ple toll It Is

.iah necensary
to %nerd greater security to the tenauttanner than at present
tt eta for the capital Invested in its cultivation. Tour eom.
ranee la, therefore, of opinion that it is desirable to provide
by law, as reeards agricultural tensuciee, to finally dete rude.
the amount due either to Jndlurc, for depreciaron of.pro;rerty.
by default id tenant, or to tenant for unexhaosted anpr..ve.
Wants, and that, except when otherwise esoreerd4 atipulutod
by contract between the parties, all ilittee,,,e, isegegen
landlord and tenant on the expiration of b enancy'bban
las
referred to arbitration, either by puf 'die arbitrators or ia
manner recommended in the I.',tow lug agreement 1- -
lour committee str ugly reconinnebi. annexed
rand um of agreement for itenee•-t ailoptien in the erstrect,
for the following reasons :-1.16f.eia,, that Ibb cue
compensation to the tenant,
„bt,,bt
warrtZ
other, protection to the la, the ,n
Img at.
m. deavoured to put the pri "
„tele above enunciated hda: a de-
finite and practical shale , thy drawing up a
which would leave tvtunis as unrestriete 'F":. agreement
practicable,
make it their interest,
a,tarm well to fire end of their tenanelsa,
and so entail tea lAn upon the landlord or the next tettent.
There is very 11.,
; cee thnt is new in the ptovisions of this pro-
Weed f"r"' . tegreement, although soton of them hre not
generally ad
niouths'evree—via, as to the termite...don of tenancy - 12
" -dive to be given instead of the efival six, except
whe" e'..esitors of tenants are concerne.l. No miter:llona
vs to 'snapping during the continuance of the ton Alley, but
Ca to the state of the farm whew leaving. he
-
see vation of feathered game only. Compensation to tenants' for the unnahausted value of purchased food and matures
armd derir,e the last years of teuaray, and for leaving land -clean. 'the object of the committee has been to serer; to
tenants a return for their expenditure, liberty to cultivate
•their land and dispose of their crops in the way that will pay i
We'd beet, under such conditions as w.ll prevent .leteriora.
to u of their farms and the removal of the objection to gam*.
reaorving. Believing that the adoption of snob an a.;ree-
ment would promote the interents of landlords and tenants,
as well us tied kinGly feeling which shield always exist
between them, the enormittee ventures Le, submit it to the
consideration of the members of the Staffordshire Chtuntrer
of Agriculture."
tji elaborate memorandum of agreement was apPemted
the Earl of liarrowby, in moving the adopti-en of the
'report, said the reeolutions of the Committee were
.only a carrying out of the coneinziou which the
Chamber Conic to about three yeeen ago, and they had
retained a continuity of opinion upon the subject
which was creditable to them, and was some assurence
that Peer had corue to a right decision. Ile imagined
that there were two great diviaione of opinion in cc.
gar e to the beet means of giving better securit y to the
t,' nent.farmer than at present exieted ; some being in
navoor of leases, while others thought that an agree-
ment for a lease, but with a shorter power of deter
Ruination and with provisions for compensation te the
tenant were preferable. He thought the Chamber
generally agreed that the latter plan wren the best,
and it seemed to him that there was this great
defect in the system of leases for years, that tbeve
was a temptation to a great breach of contamity,
as towanis the end of a certain time the tenant's in-
terest in tho farm was materially affeeted. He felt
that he ewes likely to go out at a eertalit time, when the
farm woeaa prolably be re-valned end the improve-
Inmate ',le had made re-valued against him, and, alto.
gether his hold upon the property to which he was
all'eclijed personally Was very much diminished. In
weeny parts of the country, especially in Scotland, it
was the result of the system of leases for years, and at
the determination of the leases the farms were put rep
. toy auction to the highest bidder, which seemed to him
to be the most uncomfortable 'possible relation hetween
landlord and tenant. Therefore, the committee had
rather put aside the question of leases for D deter.
minate period of years, and looked for ttecurity gen the
oapital of the tenant-fermer to provisions Which week'
insure that full justice should be done him at `
log; and he himself thought that theln part.
should not only have full justice, le "entint.farreer
of the scale should always be ' •tt that the turn
• plause.) The farmer threw bi 'l'4l favour. (AM
farm, anti he ought to se.' a bear% and non] into th-
an far as was eompatie• a that It was his own estate
He ought to feel ti ete with his not being the owner.
might bestow ce etst it was a property upon which he
a full occur' his capital and all his affections with
hear.) "- elfy that be would receiveno damage. (near,
visit' . neon was eery little that was ner In the pro-
f' ,eas of the proposed form of agreement, although
eeere were some that were not generally adopted ;ape,
for instance, as the Cale of twelve months' notice being
tgiven instead of nix, except in the eases where exe-
cutors were concerned. His own ekpeetence taueht
him that in each cages it was nearly two years before
the farm get into permanent hands, and it ',menet
desirable to lengthen that period. AtiAler ptiewaple
If the agreement wan that there elrould be no
restrictions as to clopping during the continuance of
the tenancy, but only an to the state of the farm
when the tenant left. He thought they were all
agreed upon tide, that there should be greater
elbow-roorn given to farmers, and that the leading
strings which formerly rather fettered than ghitled
them ware no longer necessary. Then they came to
the prenr rvation of feithered game wily, and they
all kr! w that the question of game generally was
very 'difficult matter. He himself was no spertaman or
street game preserver, bat he did not see how they
'were to get rid of the evils attending the over- preserve.
lion of game except by interfering with the liberty of
contract, or telling the tenant that he might let hie
game to any one but his landlord. He thought it wcr,ia
be a very harsh thing to say that the Ifi.ndlcrd, the
real owner, was the only peraan who Wae. bnii to have
the enjoy meet of sport. He did not rue eny just mode
dealing with the queetion, except, good sense and
arbitration—although he admitted that in this ea,
arbitration was not BO eagle., applicable as in others,
where it wee resorted to at the end or a tenancy, fee
though arbitration durie,g the continuance of is tenancy
might settle the palw.ieular point at issue, it wonild not
settle the state of
feeling between landlord and tenant.
He feared that an many ewes if the lan Pori were die-
satiened the result, it might leave in his mind
A feeling that he would like to have enother tenant.
Comperaation for tmexhau.eted improvements and
the value of artificial food anti manures pur-
chased during the last year of the tenancy twere
or, very properly to be left to arbitretam. It
'seemed to him that one of the most vateettle novelties
in the agreement was the encouragsment given to a
tenant to leave the land clean by paying him rather
over than under the amount be had expended in clean-
ing it, for one pound expended in preventing land
getting foul was worth two spent in cleaning it after-
ward& In conclusion the noble Earl said the general
principle of the agreement was that all differences be-
tween landlord and tenant should be settled, not by an
appeal to law, but by arbitration, exewpt when other-
wise expressly stipulated between the partite'. If
persons chotte to contract themselves out of the pre-
potted law, 14 them do so, for they would do it with
their eyes open' but what they wieheti to see carried
was an Act of Parliament providing that where the
parties made no epecilic agreement to the contrary, all
disputes between landlord and tenant ebould be nettled
by arbitration. (Hear, hear.) With these observa-
tions he moved that the Chamber sanction the report
of the committee, iD order that it might be cent up to
the Central Chamber for general criticism. (Applause.)
Mr. T. C. Smieh seconded the motion. He said the
committee in de-awing up the report had acted under
the belief that, the landlord and the tenant were not
conflicting Perties, but two fine horses bred in the same
stable, who might be trained to step well together. As
a ConservAive, he quoted from the Earl of Derby and
other errement leaders of his party expreesione showing
tffict tba general principles upon which the memoran-
deim of agreemeet was based were such as they had
•nhaecowed forth in discussing, this question.
Colonel iyott, M.P., though taking exception to
-rme or two paragraph. in the report and memeriendum
.of agreement, cordially and entirely approved the
general principle that arbitration should be resorted to
the termination of a tenancy. As to the vexed
-question of game, he saw his way very clearly through
it, and he bad always thought that there was no
particular relation between landlord and tenant which
W 5 so capable of an easy solution. If game did
damage to a tenant's crops, let him go to the landlord
and Pay, "I must have compensation or the game
nmet be destroyed." (A tenant farmer "If a tenant
did this he would soon get notice to leave." Cries
of "hear, bear.") He himself never had any difficulty
with the game question. At the same time he entirely
disapproved &landlord letting the shooting to etrangers,
and he thought that this practice was a practical
grievance which ought to be put down. (Hear, hear.)
As to rabbits, the tenant ought to have leave to destroy
Ibsen all the year round in any way he chose, for they
were animals which never grew to be worth a chilling
until they had done at least two shillings' worth of
harm. (Hear, hear.)
After sonic diecussion, the report of the committee
was unanimously adopted, subject to certain verbal
alteration& The memorandum of agreement was then
discuetted at grwat length, but the question turned upon
points if detail of no interest to the general public.
The only clause in which any important alteration
was made was one relating to game, which was altered
so art to glee the teuent the power t.t take hares from
the /A ec November till the lot of March.