THE NEW BILL OF THE FARMERS' ALLIANCE.
THE so-called "revised draft" of the Landlord and Tenant Bill, prepared by a Special Committee of the Farmers' Alliance, will be issued in a few days, its publication being only delayed in order to make a few verbal alterations con- sidered desirable for the purpose of giving clearness to some of the provisions. The Bill has been so extensively added to and so completely transformed that it is in reality a new Bill, rather than merely a " revised draft."
The original Bill was so freely criticised during the past winter that its provisions are generally known. It proposed to introduce in England a system of compensating tenants for their im- provements similar to the Ulster custom. That is to say, it gave to the tenant a right to sell his improvements in the open market, with pre-emption to his landlord ; and this plan of compensation was made compulsory, except in cases in which both landlord and tenant might agree to settle the matter pri- vately in another way. The proposal failed to obtain sufficient support in this country to give it any chance of success, and a large proportion of the members of the Alliance even ob- jected to it. Hence it was decided at the annual meeting of the Association that the Bill should be re-drafted, and instruc- tions for introducing arbitration as an alternative to sale were issued to the Special Committee which drew up the Bill in the first instance. In carrying out these instructions, the Committee had to decide whether compensation by arbitra- tion or compensation by sale should have precedence ; and, bearing in mind the obvious preference of members of their own Association and outsiders alike, they did not hesitate to make compensation by arbitration obligatory, except when both landlord and tenant prefer the other plan. The new Bill, then, provides first that every tenant shall be entitled to compensation for his improvements on the termination of his tenancy, and next goes on to direct that the amount due to him shall be determined either by the arbitration schedule or by the sale schedule embodied in the Bill. When making a contract the landlord and tenant may choose which plan they will adopt, and this agreement will operate unless varied afterwards by mutual consent. If no agreement as to the mode of ascertaining the amount of compensation be included in the contract, either party, within fifty days after a notice to terminate the contract has been given, may insist on the amount being determined by arbitration ; but if no such notice is given, the sale provisions of the Bill will come into force.
As under either the arbitration or sale provisions of the Bill some authority to decide matters in dispute is essen-
tial, a new Court is appointed. Under the old Bill the Court was to consist of the Judge of the County Court and two assessors taken from a panel appointed by the Boards of Guardians of the county. This was objected to on the ground that assessors so appointed would be partisans of tenants, and to meet this objection it is now proposed that the assessors shall be chosen by a County Committee, half appointed by the Boards of Guardians and half by the magis- trates. This County Committee is empowered to act as an authority by itself in any case of deadlock under the arbitra- tion provisions of the Bill ; as, for instance, to appoint an arbitrator when either party neglects to appoint one for him- self, or to appoint an umpire when the two arbitrators fail to agree in choosing one. The Court, as already described, is made the authority for charging penalties, deciding as to rent under the sale provisions, and adjudicating upon disputes generally.
As in the old Bill, the power of distraint for agricultural rent is abolished, two years' notice previous to the termination of a tenancy are required, and tenants are given power to assign or bequeath their tenancies, under certain restrictions. The tenant is authorised to deduct one-half of all local rates from his rent instead of three-fourths, as in the old Bill, and to deduct all tithes, instead of ordinary tithes only, as pre- viously proposed. Freedom of cultivation is still secured by limiting damages for breaches of contract or deterioration to the extent to which the letting value of the holding has been
diminished by such acts or defaults ; and in other respects, the clauses affording to landlords protection against waste by tenants are also unaltered.
Although the Bill, as will have been seen, is of the nature of a compromise, it is considerably in advance of any measure of the kind previously proposed for England ; for not only is what is called " Free Sale ' preserved as an alternative, but, under the compensation provisions, the valuers are left free to award compensation to the full amount of the increased letting value of a holding caused by the tenant's improve- ments. There is no attempt, as in the Agricultural Holdings Act, to classify improvements and to define their respective periods of exhaustion ; nor are there any of those vexatious restrictions upon the tenant's liberty to carry out improve- ments, and to claim compensation for them, such as the neces- sity of obtaining the landlord's consent in some cases, and giving notice in others, which rendered the Agricultural Holdings Act so entirely unacceptable to farmers, even when they had the chance of coming under it.
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