I have not thought myself at liberty to enter upon the land
question in Shetland as substantive part of the inquiry; but it is
plain that the prevalence of truck is due in no small degree to the
habit of dependence, or submission, which the faulty relations
between landlords and tenants have fostered. Here, too, however,
it may perhaps be said that legislation ought not to be of a local
and exceptional character. I may at least be permitted to hope
that, in any reform of the land tenancy laws of Scotland, the case
of Shetland will not be forgotten.
The introduction of a class of peasant proprietors seems
impossible, except by some measure resembling the 44th clause
of the Irish Land Act, 1870; while the sudden expulsion of the
present population, and the substitution of sheep, would probably
be destructive to the fishing industries as they now subsist.
But the present insecurity of tenure is not consistent either with
the permanent interests of the land (in which the country still
more than the landlord is concerned), or with the formation or
maintenance of a race of independent and intelligent citizens.
Probably a law of landlord and tenant, passed with no arrière
pensee as to maintaining the authority of the landlord, but with the
honest intention of reconciling the rights and interests with the
independence of both parties to the contract, would not permit the
landlord to evict without cause upon forty days' warning. It may
even be maintained that in the present state of agricultural science,
no tenure for so short a period as one year ought to be permitted.
Farmers of the larger class, however, are or ought to be able to
protect themselves in their bargains with landlords; and as this
Report has nothing to do with such tenant farmers, they may be
left out of the question. But in the case of small fishermen
farmers, it is worthy of consideration whether a warning of at
least one year, excepting cases of insolvency or specified kinds
of misconduct, ought not to be required before eviction from
any agricultural holding below a certain rental; and whether in
such holdings tenants should not have some summary means
of recovering from the landlord or succeeding tenant any
extraordinary expenditure they make upon their land or houses.
. (Signed) W. GUTHRIE.
EDINBURGH, <June> 15, 1872
APPENDIX to COMMISSION ON THE TRUCK SYSTEM
(SHETLAND).