A Serious Prospect for England.

Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 3945, 20 August 1881, Page 1

A Serious Prospect for England.

[MOM THE PAIL MAXL ai/EITJE.]

Mr Sturge, of Birmingham, has made a careful investigation into the reductions of rent which hare lately taken place on the relctting of farms in all parts of England, and the result is not only interesting but startling. In Lincolnshire many farms in the fen districts would be let rent free to any tenant wbo would pay I rates and taxes ; heath land has fallen 15 I per cent.; marsh land, 30 to 40 per cent. ; and clay land, 40 to 50 per cent. In West Norfolk farms ou chalk soils hare fallen about 15 per cent., many on light, sandy soils are unlet. Good fen land in Hunts has fallen ever 50 per cent., and is eren then difficult to let; tenants cannot be found for cluy land at a fall of 75 per cent., and the value of freehold land is estimated to have fallen more than a third. In Leicestershire a good 500-acre farm, lately let at 34s an acre, has nowbeen let on lease at 30s, the landlord having first laid out £2,000 on improvements. A 150 acre farm (half grass) has fallen from 3ns pr-r acre to 20s. In West Shropshire many tenants have given notice to ]cave ; others remain at reductions of fr.im 20 to 50 per cent, to. Worcestershire allowances have been made of from 25 to 30 per cent., and on one large estate only one farm is occupied, and the others will require an expenditure equal to six years' rent before they can be brought into condition again. In North Warwickshire a farm let for £400 has been relet at £300, atter a considerable outlay by the landlord on new buildinge. Auother let 150 years ago at 10s an acre, but of late at 38s 6d, is in the market, the tenant refusing to remain at 20s. In Central and South Warwickshire there have been reductions of 20 to 50 per cent., and a greater number of farms are vacant. Iv cue

parish of. 3,000 acres are unoccupied.'TS" TBectfor3shire new lettings 25, 50,;iAn&i 75 percent, below old rates. A farm recently let at 36s an acre is now rent free.. In Hertfordshire a farm of 400 acres is let reut free on condition that the tenant keeps it in cultivation: on, an estate of 5,000 acres 1,800 haye been relet at an average reduction; of 27 per cent. On another property Tj6oO acres are in the market. The fall in. Essex is 40 to 50 per cent; a farm let up to Michaelmas at £315 a year is now let at £100! In Oxfordshire fourfifths of an estate of 2,000 acres are enoccupied, and in another part of the county twenty-one farms are to Jet at nominal rents. In Somerset the fall in arable land is .about 30 per ceni. The rental of a Gloucestershire parish extending over 20pO'acres has diminished £1000 a year. la JSqrtli Wilts 10,000 acres are to be let on one estate, ami a great area of land is going outof cultivation. A farm in South Wilts, recently let at £700 a year, has been let, at £450. One estate in West Sussex 5,000 acres are tenantless and on another in West Herts eight large farms out of ten are on the owner's hands. ' In the South of Scotland reductions of from 20 to 50 per cent, have usually been made on new leases. It is of course becoming increasingly difficult to sell land unless the situation is exceptionally good, and there is every: reason to expect that an enormous number of farms will be given up at Michaelmas. Good grazing and dairy farms are now the only ones for which anything like the old rents can be obtained, and landlords are willing and eager to let on terms which they would have scouted with indignation only a few years since. The seriousness of the prospect- for next winter cannot be exag- i gerated, for it is certain that thousands of labourers will be thrown out of work, whose only resource will be the parish. At present in many localities the unsatisfactory state of thinge causes the position of farm servants to be most wretched; and small shopkeepers in country villages are unwilling to give credit even for a loaf of bread, never feeling sure that at the end of the week their customer may not be thrown out of work. L^nd owners with large nominal incomes, who have to pay jointure, interest on mortgages, and other charges, just as they had to do in the days of prosperity, are in a sorry plight; and some whose rentals amount to tens of thousands have not at their disposal as many hundreds as they are believed to have thousands, and in a few cases the redaction has made the real income of, say, £5,000 .. out of £20,000 (the difference between gross receipts and net balance after deducting outgoings) absolutely disappear. It is not strange that one of the principal house agents in London should have enough " season houses " to let to fill a large volume— when in other years at this time a single page would have sufficed for those on his hands.