In cases of leases, the landlord finds it quite impossible to
enforce the covenants for good tillage and preservation of fences,
buildings, &c. Poor rates, sanitary, medical charities, election
expenses, cattle diseases and sundry other charges are paid by the poor
rate, which is levied on the valuation of house or farm property,
consequently the funded property-holder, banks, commercial
establishments pay far less in proportion to business done than the
landholder, who cannot make as much out of a L50 holding as a banker or
publican ought to do out of a house valued at L50. The present agitation
against rents is political, and the rent question has been brought
prominently forward by the leaders with the view of getting the farmers
on their side as the great voting power. It would have been quite
useless their endeavoring to enlist the farmers without promising them
something to their own advantage; but the interest in the land is only a
veil under which the advances for total separation from England can be
made, and will be thrown aside when no further use can be made of it."
These are Sir Thomas Butler's sentiments and opinions.
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