CONDITION OF SCOTCH FARMING.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 6, Issue 1821, 23 October 1884, Page 2

CONDITION OF SCOTCH FARMING.

" A West Lothian Farmer," writing to a western contemporary, says:—" I observed in your valuable paper a few days ago letters, one horn East and one from Mid Lothian, commenting on the grievances of tenant-farmers. It is very natural that their expressions of discontent should at the present moment find their way into the public prints. As' a farmer of forty years' standing I can testify to the unsatisfactory, nay, I may say the ruinous, condition of arable farming. The cause of this is not far to seek. To take a moderate estimate of rent, the rise during the above period has been not less than 30 per cent., that upon labrar over 100 per cent,, with less work done and often n difficulty in obtaining it. Then as to the farm produce, in 1847, Sir Robert Peel, when advocating the a.h.o.lUpn, of the' Qorn Laws, declared that wheat could not be grown in this country below 5Gs por qr. ; from thirty to forty years ago the vent of laud was frequently paid in half wheat. The average of ten years ran above 50s per qr. But what is the result now 1 The average of the last five years is under 38s. A few weeks ago I sold sound (921bs per bushel) wheat at 32s and with the single exception of oats, all oqi' other products are forced below the remunerating point to the grower by the continued and evidently increasing importations of foreign countries. The income tax assumes that a farmer's income is a third of his rent, but the local (axe's are laid on every penny of his rent. I consider this an injustice. Take foi instance a farmer with £IOOO of rent; near by is a grocer with a house rant of, say £3O, and a turnover in his business of'£3000; a little beyond, is.'the village doctor wjth an income of £SOO, and a house rout of, say £4O. The farmer is assessed on his rent of £IOOO, at 6d per lb, pays £25; the grocer on £3O at 6d a lb pays 15s; the doctor on £4O at 6d per II) pays £l. It is said that rent is the most convenient mode of assessment, but I conceive that it would be convenient and more in accordance with justice, to tax only the third of the rental ot'hind. i am, uut que q£ those who are disposed to lay all the difficulties of farmers at the door of landlords, Doubtless the shoe is pinching with them also, and I would wish to counsel them as a class that it is only by combining with their "tenants and boldly facing the difficulty that agriculture can be placed on a satisfactory basis. The lease system was at one time the most important factor in raising and improving all the agricultural interests; in later years it has been the prevention to many an honest hard-WQrkjng tenant from sayin," good-byo to his landlord, It is evident the land must be cultivated, and many judicious landlords are wisely adjusting the evils complained of. Practical men can be found, with honesty and a thorough knowledge of every district, to (ix such rents as would suit the altered times in which we live, and as would also be an incentive to an industrious tenantry to cultivate and remain on the soil, on which very many have spent % best part of their lives.