.

4. Increased pressure of local taxation by the imposition
of new rates, viz. the education rate and the sanitary rate;
and the increase of old rates, especially the highway rate, in
consequence of the abolition of turnpikes. Some exceptionally
bad instances of this were given. In the parish of
Didmarton, Gloucestershire, the average amount of rates paid
for the five years ending March 31, 1858, was L26 6s. 3d.,
for the five years ending March 31, 1878, L118 11s. 7d. In
the Northleach Union the rates had increased thus in decennial
periods from 1850:--

1850-1 L5,471
1860-1 5,534
1870-1 8,525
1878-9 10,089

On one small property in Staffordshire the increase of rates,
other than poor rates, amounted to 3s. 6d. in the L on the
rateable value.

5. Excessive rates charged by railway companies for the
conveyance of produce, and preferential rates given to foreign
agricultural produce; the railway companies alleging, in defence
of this, that foreign produce was consigned in much greater
bulk, by few consignors, than home grown, and could be conveyed
much more economically than if picked up at different
stations in small quantities.

As to the effect of restrictive covenants on the depression, the
balance of evidence did not incline either way.[669]

The Agricultural Holdings Act of 1875 was stated to have done much
good in the matter of compensation to tenants for improvements,
notwithstanding its merely permissive character, as it had reversed
the presumption of law in relation to improvements effected by the
tenant, prescribed the amount of compensation, and the mode in which
it should be given.

As to the important subject of freedom of cropping and sale of
produce, there were diverse opinions, some advocating it wholly,
others not believing in it at all, others saying each landlord and
each tenant should make their own bargains since each farm stands on
its own footing, others again favouring modified restrictions. The
preponderance of opinion was in favour of a modification of the law of
distress.

The Commission further said that the pressure of foreign competition
was greatly in excess of the anticipations of the supporters and of
the apprehensions of the opponents of Corn Law Repeal; if it had not
been for this, English farmers would have been partly compe