POVERTY Borrom.
Now what is the annual value of an acre of land on the poorer soils? Near Hungerford large tracts have been bought freehold during this century for £5 an acre and were previously rented at less than 5s. The rent of land near Oundle is about 5s. an acre if the houses are reckoned, i.e., about minus 2s. 6d. without the houses. In Hertfordshire where the tithe rises to as much as 8s., a good deal of land is rented at the same figure. In all these cases the annual value as assessed• for income tax is a great deal lower than the rent. The same condition prevails in all the " Poverty Bottoms," to make generic a- local name, that Professor Somerville has made famous. .His pamphlet of that name, issued just after the War from the Oxford University Press, should be a standard work of reference for agricultural reformers. However, he did not mention tithe. It is astonish- ing that so little has been heard of the point. It is not too much to say that most of the clergy and most of the land agents have utterly disregarded their danger and their oppor- tunity. And the Ministry of Agriculture has. I understand, allowed its pamphlet on Remission of Tithe Rent Charge to go out of print. Several pleas have been brought before the Courts, but have fallen through on technicalities. These will be avoided in approaching cases.
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