The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE. SATURDAY, JAN. 21, 1893.

Waikato Times, Volume XL, Issue 3210, 21 January 1893, Page 2

The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE.

SATURDAY, JAN. 21, 1893.

Equal and eiact justice to all men, Of whatsoever state or persuasion, religious or political.

The early part of last month's cablegrams reached us giving a very condensed epitome of the proceedings at the National Agricultural Conference which was held in London on the 7th. It was a thoroughly representative) meeting as there was a large attendance of delegates from the different branches which embraced landlords, tenant-farmers, and agricultural labourers. The principal were Mr James Lowther, M.P., who occupied the clmir, and Mr Chaplin, M.P. late Member of Lord Salisbury's Government. The object of the conference was the consideration of the depressed state of agricultural and pastoral interests, to define the causes and suggest remedies. The causes were easy of definition, but the suggesting of practicable measures to ameliorate the position proved much more so, in fact, to our mind, the conference was a complete failure in this respect, judging by the three resolutions which wore passed, The Chairman in his opening address said that although the general public had heard a good deal of the depression, they failed to comprehend the gravity of the position. He quoted Sir James Laird's evidence before the Idesleigh Commission which sat in 1866. He pointed out that what he termed the spendable incomes of landlords, tenants and labourers had enormously shrunk. He made an estimate from each county and stated that the landI lords have lost from 30 to 60 per cent of this income, the tenants from 50 per cent, to the whole. He sums up with the assertion that, on a rental of £65,000,000, the landlords have lost £20,000,000 the tenants have lost £20,000,000, or 30 per cent, of their income, the labourers, £2,800,000, or 10 per cent, of their spendable income, making a total loss of spendable income amounting to £42,800,000. He defines spendable income as the sum which remains after meeting ordinary charges. Mr Clay, another authority states that in 1891 as compared with thirty years ago, there was a loss of £77,000,000 in the annual value of agricultural produce, Mr Chaplin moved the first resolution, which is too lengthy to quote in full, but which was an assertion of the existence of depression, that the position was critical and was mainly duo to the continuous fall in prices, aggravate,! by a bad harvest; that under present conditions much of the land had ceased to give any return, and any further fall in prices could only result in more and more going out ,o'f cultivation, Mr Saunders, M.P., moved the addition " That the fall in prices is the natural result of improved methods, of production, and

that laiul goes out of cultivation because it is willicld from those who can cultivate it with advantage." The amendment was put with the result that only some half-dozen voted for it, and the original motion was carried. Mr Chaplin, in speaking to his resolution, said that what they hail to ascertain was the real cause, and i[ possible to liiul a rotnwly, Ho had heard it said that the antiquated land laws were to blame, Iliac the system of land tnnnre is radically wrong, and that the relations between landlords and tenants must be thoroughly revised. He was not prepared to say that some amendments might he beneficial, but he pointed out that not very long ago agriculture was, perhaps, the most flourishing industry in the country, Their position was the wonder and admiration of their neighbours, This was under precisely the same conditions as regards the laws and the relations of landlords and tenants. After all none of these questions directly touched that of prices, and there were only three things that could be said to do so—rent, foreign competition, and the currency. He asked had not reductions of rent been tried already, As an instance, he quoted the cases of Lord Leicester's estate in Norfolk, and stated that that nobleman was one of the most enlightened landlords in the country, and his figures show that, including a sum of £190,(J00 for the purchase of land, there lias been spent on improvements during his life and that of his predecessors no less a sum than £1,01)5,000. The net income in 1812, that is after meeting the usual charges of an estate, was £33,000 ; in 1878 it was £40,000; and in 1891 £23,000, There had since been a considerable fall in prices, and a further reduction would have to be made. At present the return is barely 2| per cent, on the cost of improvements, In such cases as this, and tliey are common, Mr Chaplin said there was very little more to be done in the reduction of rent, He pointed out the impracticability of getting protective duties imposed as a remedy and arrived at the conclusion that the remedy lay in the establishment of a bi-metalic currency, and quoted the opinion of Archbishop Walsh to the same effect. Two other resolutions were passed, space will only admit of our simply giving them and we must for the same reason hold over our comments on the whole question and the lesson which is to be drawn from it till next issue. They were: " That the unfair competitions of untaxed foreign imports with home produce and manufactures which arc subject to heavy internal taxation is an anomoly and an injustice, and by causing the diminution of the demand for home labour and the contraction of the purchasing power of the community, adversely affects every trade in the country and this Conference is further of opinion that competing imports should pay a duty not less than the rates and "taxes levied on home production." This conference is of opinion that the continuous fall of prices is largely duo to the appreciation ot gold and the fall in exchange between the gold and silver standard countries, that the be<it and most effective remedies would be secured by an agreement upon a broad and international basis, to re-open the mints of the leading nations to the unrestricted coinage of both silver and gold, and that Her Majesty's government be earnestly requested to co-operate with other nations at the monetary conference now sitting to secure such an international agreement."