XXX APPENDIX. 
     
    
   
   
    
     ofthe money paid by the tenants for the conversion of their 
     
     tenures. With a cash account to this extent at the dis- 
     
     posal of the Government, the competition of proprietors 
     
     for the money would determine the value of lands. There 
     
     would be no necessity for coercion. The estates would be 
     
     bought at prices which would enable the Government to 
     
     resell them low, and to remit all the arrears as had been 
     
     done in respect of the Selkirk and Worrell Estates. If the 
     
     prices paid for those properties formed any criterion, then 5 
     
     for about 2s 6d. sterling per acre 800,000 acres could be 
     
     relieved from the leasehold tenure. Adding what was 
     
     already free. there would remain but about 160,000 acres 
     
     which could easily be purchased as the proceeds of the 
     
     Selkirk and \Vorrell Estates came in. If the prices de- 
     
     manded were higher the operations might take a longer 
     
     time; but far and above all other solutions of the diffi- 
     
     Gully this mode was certainly to be preferred. 
     
    

    
     This was the first solution of existing difficulties re- 
     
     commended by the Commissioners. and it was in their 
     
     opinion, far above and beyond all others. the best. But 
     
     should the Imperial Government decline to guaranteea 
     
     Loan, or the Provincial Government refuse to tender the 
     
     securities, then other remedies were provided. There were 
     
     two. It was in evidence before the Commissioners that 
     
     some leasehold properties are selling at high prices, and- 
     
     that for others the landlords had refused from the tenants 
     
     205. sterling an acre. It was clear that, however valuable 
     
     these properties might be, the landlord‘s interest in them 
     
     was but 20 years‘ purchase. The Commissioners then 
     
     award, that when any tenant shall tender to his landlord 
     
     20 years purchase, or £100, the landlord shall be bound 
     
     to give him a deed, and if the tenant pays in cash, a de- 
     
     duction of 10 per cent. Under this clause tenants can at 
     
     once, and without delay, convert their farms and become 
     
     freeholders. If the tenant is not prepared to pay the 
     
     money down, he may pay by instalments of £10 a year 
     
     for ten years, the rent diminishing as the instalments are 
     
     paid. 
     
    

    
     But many farms are not worth 20 yeatrs' purchase, and 
     
     many he worth very little. To provide for all such cases 
     
     the Commissioners award, that any tenant who wants to 
     
     purchase may tender to his landlord what he conceives to 
     
     be the value of his farm, say £30 or £40. If the land 
     
     lord accepts there is an end of the matter. If he declines 
     
     he must appoint an arbitrator, the tenant appoints ano- 
     
     ther, and if these two cannot agree they appoint a third. 
     
     These three men fix the price to be paid for the farm. If 
     
     it exceeds the tenant’s offer the tenant pays the expense of 
     
     the arbitration. If it does not, the expenses are to be