A HIGHLAND LAIRD ON FIXITY OF TENURE.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2454, 16 February 1882, Page 4

A HIGHLAND LAIRD ON FIXITY OF TENURE.

Lecturing at Oban recently on the land laws, Mr Q. G. Mackay, of Glengloy, advocated the abolition of entail and primogeniture. As regards fixity of tenure, ha objected strongly to fix the present tenants in their holdings without their landlord’s consent. Ho wanted, however, to see such a condition of tho law that every man who wishes to get an acre, or five acres, or fifty, oan get it if he has tho money to pay for it.

Such is not the case now. Whore can a man get five acres of land to purchase between Oban and Inverness, for instance ? There are only about a score of landlords along the entire route, and I should like to see five hundred. [Loud applause.J I advocate the giving of fixity of tenure on all lands held by corporations or in trust for charitable purposes, and this would make a beginning in the desired direction without interfering with the discretion of private owners. These would work well, and show proprietors that fixity of tenure was not such a bugbear as they had imagined it after all, and thus pave the way for its gradual extension. Take an instance. There is an estate adjoining mine on Loch-Looby side, held by the trustees of the Belford Hospital, the revenue of which goes to support the hospital, Now, there are a number of orofters on this property who might very well have fixity of tenure. If they had they oauld pay 50 per cent, more than their present rents, and bo much more comfortable than they are now, because a constant use would be found for their idle time, at present so much wasted. The average crofter is twothirds of his time idle, and this is his capital at present lying dormant and useless. After he had fixity of tenure at a moderate rent, be must be a useless fellow who would be idle for a day. Most men, with five acres of arable land and twenty acres of reclaimable heatb, would soon show what could be done. Indead of five acres of arable land, they would by-and-by have twenty-five. They or their heirs would never be paupers, and the trustees who own the land would have a largely increased income for the uses of the trust. That is how fixity of tenure would work, and would certainly result in much advantage to all concerned. But, except in oases of mortifications and trusts, snob as I have referred to, I would deprecate any proposal to compulsorily give fixity of tenure, because such a law would tend to take away the interest of a landlord in his estate, and encovrsge absenteeism, and disturb the happy relations at present usually existing between landlord and tenant ; and, besides all this, it would be a positive confiscation of a large part of the landlord’s estate, because, as you know well, fixed rents or tens are only worth 22J to 25 years’ purchase in the market, while ordinary rental is worth 35 to 40 years’ purchase.