That instead of the money being taken from the farmers, and wasted in
useless and unproductive works, each person liable to pay this rate
should have the option of expending it upon his own land, in additional
labour, upon works tending, as far as possible, to promote the increased
production of food; and that the most suitable and profitable works in
each locality would be best ascertained by inviting proposals from the
ratepayers--each for his own land. 2. That in the event of landlord and
tenant not agreeing in the works to be undertaken, each should be
entitled to expend the portion of rate paid by himself. These
suggestions were certainly calculated to avert the most threatening
danger of the moment--the danger of not having sufficient attention paid
to the cultivation of the land, in order to produce food for the coming
year. 3. Those ratepayers next express their opinion, that landlords and
others, having sufficient interest in lands, should be encouraged by the
offer of loans to undertake extensive and permanent profitable
improvements, such as the draining and reclaiming of land--the making of
roads to come under the designation of profitable improvements, only so
far as they would be the means of facilitating cultivation.
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