LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
THE AGRICULTURAL LAND RATING BILL. [To rien Barron or min • Brscraron."]
Sin,—Sir H. Fowler, M.P., is reported in the East Anglian Times of June 8th as having told his audience at Cambridge on Saturday that " the landlords would get the oyster and the tenants the shell" out of the Agricultural Land Rating Bill. Most of his hearers must have known, as living amidst agri- cultural surroundings, that this statement is absolutely devoid of foundation, and it is difficult to believe that Sir Henry is so ignorant of the true facts as to believe it himself. The -operation of the proposed relief being limited to five years, it is absolutely certain that the present occupiers — tenant- farmers in the main—will get the almost exclusive benefit of the measure. Doubtless those owners who, like myself, -cultivate a considerable area of arable land at a lose, mainly to keep their labourers employed, will be relieved to the same -extent as other occupiers. But no class needs relief more than occupying owners, and we apply for it as occupiers, not as -owners. In East Anglia, where arable farming can only be ,profitably carried on by exceptional men under exceptionally favourable circumstances, thousands of labourers and all ,kinds of artisans will continue to be thrown out of employ- ment unless we get substantial relief. It is monstrously unfair on the part of ignorant Gladstonian politicians to -endeavour to deceive audiences all over the country on this topic.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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