The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1886-10-16 00:00:00

612 e ,totirbribge Oberber.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1886.
A NEW VIEW OF LAND RENTS.

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EVERYONE interested in agriculture has heard
of Lord Tollemache, and the constant efforts
he has been for years past making on his
estates in Cheshire to solve the question of
profitable or unprofitable farming, in the in-
terest of those whose lives are bound up with
the land. Anything that the thoughtful
farming nobleman says or does with respect
to his estates is always sure to command at-
tmtion. He has recently given an utter-
ance on the matter of rent .which should
hwe careful consideration everywhere when
rints press hard. It is the practical expres-
sion of the kindly-hearted landlord, who
would have his tenants honestly earn their
liveliheod on their own holdings, and who
would refrain from exacting his own "pound
of flesh" when bad seasons or some other foe
of the farmer send all his plans "aglee."
He aims, indeed, at that sort of reciprocity
which will be recognised in Britain as anal-
ogous to a spirit or sturdy fairness and open-
dealing. The land is the source of income
to tenant and lord alike ; if the land, well
worked, gives the tenant a fair return, the
owner should participate in due measure in
the increase ; if calamity occur, it lies with
the landlord to alleviate the loss as much as
liberality, cr, at least, common justice, would
dictate after an impartial consideration. This
is the broad principle which Lord Tollemache
would enforce by that best of all arrange-
ments—example. One sees much notifica-
tion of rent-abatement in newspaper para-
graphs now-a-days, a palpable and not too
lioarb-giv iug proof of depression in agricul-
ture. But, recognising the thoughtful con-
sideration and self-sacrifice that prompts the
reductions 'of which we hear so much ; it is
still hard to imagine anything less satisfac-
tory to tenant and landlord alike than the
means by which the sum total of rent is
poised to suit the diminished values of farm
produce. Of course the tenant and soil-tiller
who gets back a einartor or, in some cases,
half his rent, because of "hard times," can-
not but feel thankful to his landlord, but it
puts your independent yeoman—a man of
aq others inclined by instinct to take his
stand alone—into a position wh;sh iks-
s,iareely olc,li, that of the recipient of
charity. Lord Tollemache's aim, in the
plan which he has set at work on the Helm-
iagharn Estate, has been to restore the pc-
sition of landlord and. tenant to a sound
basinoss footing, such as is involved in the
principle of contract rents. His lordship
sees, as everyone else will one day have to
s:)e, that agrie..ulture cannot be carried on in
this . country under existent conditions if
r —al v. a:s high eaough—romain inva; j.
able in ye.ti'::; of had harvest and of good, in
siasons when produce finds a ready markel;
at paying prices and years when c-ops have
to be disposed of, by reason-of glut or low
q tality, for next to nothing, Lord Tolle-
m tette, in fact, brings the good old Encr'ish
axiom of "share, • and share alike" to °bear
up m the consideration of the matter. Time
was wii.:na good years pail for bad ones ; hat
foreign competition was a fleabite in those
h ilcyon days as compared with what has to
he contented with now. The nut to be
cracked is how to arraoge things so that the
grower may be so relieved from pressure in
bad times as to enable him to make the
most of good ones, when the sun of pros-
perity shines again. To this end Lord Tol:e-
-mache would adopt the idea of the tithe-rent
charge to the landlord's rent. If corn goes
up, as decided by competent standard au-
thority, the rent should rise accordingly ; if
produce falls flat, then rent incidence should
htve a corresponding reduction, not as a
matter of grace or favour from landlord to
tenant, but by open agreement and as a
r:ght. Thus, not only would the farmer be
e nancipated from dependence upon his
I)rd.'s good nature, but he wouldd always
b: able to reckon with certainty beforehand
exactly what he would have to pay.
First, a fair rent would have to be fixed as a
starting point ; and market competition
w )nld in most cases regulate this matter
equitably. A. drop or an improvement
,in
corn prices of half-a crown a quarter would
fien mean a fall or a rise of 5 per cent. This
sliding scale system would also have to be
aoplied to other crops and to- stocks; and
the matter would involve some necessity for
thoughtful elaboration ; but it should not be
beyond the powers of honest endeavour and
a spirit of fairness to arrange justly and
pr Let icably. Lord Tollernaclle has put the
plan in operation, and though it has not been
tried long enough to allow of a decisive
•rouncement, so far the result is distinctly
s ttisfactory. It is very pleasant to see the
d fficult rent problem appr( ached as Lord
Tollemache tacos it. If more cf our landlords
would do likewise, agriculture would have a
brighter promise. It is gratifying to gather
t at the complications of Lori rollemache's
s_illeine, have not daunted pn•ctieal farmers
and land-agents who have examined it, and
we are hoping to hear much more, in conse-
quence, of this new view of land rents.

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