be extended over a series of years, and be at such a rate, in respect of
principal and interest, as will at once secure a reduction of not less
than fifteen per cent, or more than twenty-five per cent on second term
rents or their fair equivalent, with further periodical reductions as
under existing land purchase acts until such time as the treasury is
satisfied that the loan has been repaid. This may involve some assistance
from the State beyond the use of its credit, which, under circumstances
hereinafter mentioned, we consider may reasonably be granted. Facilities
should be provided for the redemption at any time of the purchase money or
part thereof by payment of the capital or any part thereof.
"13. That the hanging gale, where such custom exists, should be included
in the loan and paid off in the instalments to be paid by the purchasing
occupier, and should not be a debt immediately recoverable from the
occupier, but the amount of rent ordinarily payable for the period between
the date when the last payment fell due and the date of agreement for sale
should be payable as part of the first instalment.
"14. That counties wholly or partly under the operations of the congested
districts board, or other districts of a similar character (as defined by
the Congested Districts Board Acts and by section four, clause one, of Mr.
Wyndham's Land Purchase Amendment Bill of last session), will require
separate and exceptional treatment with a view to the better distribution
of the population and of the land, as well as for the acceleration and
extension of these projects for migration and enlargement of holdings
which the congested districts board, as at present constituted and with
its limited powers, has hitherto found it impossible to carry out upon an
adequate scale.
"15. That any project for the solution of the Irish Land Question should
be accompanied by a settlement of the evicted tenants' question upon an
equitable basis.
"16. That sporting and riparian rights should remain as they are, subject
to any provisions of existing Land Purchase Acts.
"17. That the failure to enforce the Labourers Acts in certain portions of
the country constitutes a serious grievance, and that in districts where,
in the opinion of the local government board, sufficient accommodation has
not been made for the housing of the labouring classes, power should be
given to the local government board, in conjunction with the local
authorities, to acquire sites for houses and allotments.
"18. That the principle of restriction upon subletting might be extended
to such control as may be practicable over resales of purchasers' interest
and mortgages, with a view to maintaining unimpaired the value of the
State's security for outstanding instalments on loans.
"And whereas we are agreed that no settlement can give peace and
contentment to Ireland or afford reasonable and fair opportunity for the
development of the resources of the country, which fails to satisfy the
just claims of both owners and occupiers,
"And whereas such settlement can only be effected by the assistance of the
State, which, as a principle, has been employed in former years,
"And whereas it appears to us that, for the healing of differences and the
welfare of the country, such assistance should be given, and can be given,
and can effect a settlement without either undue cost to the treasury or
appreciable risk with regard to the money advanced, we are of opinion that
any reasonable difference arising between the sum advanced by the State,
and ultimately repaid to it, may be justified by the following
considerations:--
"That for the future welfare of Ireland, and for the smooth working of any
measure dealing with the transfer of land, it is necessary:--
"1. That the occupiers should be started on their new career as owners on
a fair and favourable basis, insuring reasonable chances of success, and
that in view of the responsibilities to be assumed by them they should
receive some inducement to purchase.
"2. That the owners should receive some recognition of the facts that
selling may involve sacrifice of sentiment, that they have already
suffered heavily by the operation of the land acts, and that they should
receive some inducement to sell.
"3. That for the benefit of the whole community it is of the greatest
importance that income derived from sale of property in Ireland should
continue to be expended in Ireland.
"And we further submit that, as a legitimate setoff against any demand
upon the State, it must be borne in mind that, upon the settlement of the
land question in Ireland, the cost of administration of the law and the
cost of the Royal Irish Constabulary would be materially and permanently
lessened.
"We do not, at the present time, desire to offer further recommendations
upon the subject of finance which must necessarily be regulated by the
approval of the government to the principles of the proposals above
formulated except that, in our opinion, the principles of reduction of the
sinking fund in the event of loss to the State by an increase of the
value of money should be extended by the inclusion of the principle of
increase of the sinking fund in favour of the purchasers in the event of
gain to the State by decrease in the value of money.
"Inasmuch as one of the main conditions of success in reference to any
land purchase scheme must be its prompt application and the avoidance of
those complicated investigations and legal delays which have hitherto
clogged all legislative proposals for settling the relations between Irish
landlords and tenants, we deem it of urgent importance that no protracted
period of time should ensue before a settlement based upon the
above-mentioned principles is carried out; that the executive machinery
should be effective, competent, and speedy, and that investigations
conducted by it should not entail cost upon owner or occupier; and, as a
further inducement to despatch, we suggest that any state aid, apart from
loans which may be required for carrying out a scheme of land purchase as
herein proposed, should be limited to transactions initiated within five
years after the passing of the act.
"We wish to place on record our belief that an unexampled opportunity is
at the present moment afforded his Majesty's government of effecting a
reconciliation of classes in Ireland upon terms which, as we believe,
involve no permanent increase of Imperial expenditure in Ireland; and that
there would be found on all sides an earnest desire to cooperate with the
government in securing the success of a Land Purchase Bill, which, by
effectively and rapidly carrying out the principles above indicated, would
bring peace and prosperity to the country.
"Signed at the Mansion House, Dublin, this third day of January, 1903.
"DUNRAVEN (_Chairman_) JOHN REDMOND
"MAYO WM. O'BRIEN
"W. H. HUTCHESON POE T. W. RUSSELL
"NUGENT T. EVERARD T. C. HARRINGTON"
It soon transpired that the idea of a conference between landlords' and
tenants' representatives was the government plan for laying the foundation
of the bill that they contemplated introducing as a government measure
later on. The tenants' representatives, who, in the then position of the
land question, with prices falling and the third revision term looming in
the distance, had all the trumps in their hands, were hopelessly
outmanoeuvred by the landlord section.
The question to be discussed was largely a financial one, but still the
tenants had not a man of financial ability at the board. It is true the
members of the conference were nominated, and not selected by their
respective sides, though afterwards, for reasons easily understood, the
nominations were ratified by the parties concerned. But nominated by whom?
By a Captain Shawe Taylor, a personage popular with all parties, but in
this matter undoubtedly the agent of the government. The conference sat
five times, and all through the proceedings the nationalist
representatives were rubbing their hands with glee, for they thought the
millennium had come.
The landlord party, on the other hand, were in nightly communication with
the Castle. Treasury experts were drafted over to Dublin, and no stone was
left unturned to secure for the landlords a measure which would satisfy
the most exacting. They succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. On the 3d
of January, 1903, the land conference issued its report. Clear-headed
politicians saw at once that the tenants had played the game and lost.
Every advantage or benefit that the landlord sought or claimed was secured
to him by this treaty, as it was afterwards styled, in terms that could
not be gainsaid. The tenants' clauses in the report were mostly pious
expressions of opinion, which were afterwards, when the Land Bill came to
be drafted, brushed aside, or quietly ignored. But all was not yet lost.
The _Freeman's Journal_, under the able guidance of Mr. Thomas Sexton, in
a series of powerful articles, reviewed the whole position. It boldly but
temperately pointed out the defects in the conference report. It refused
to shout with the crowd. It could not see that much was gained. It clearly
saw that a great deal had been lost. The bill, a large and complicated
measure of eighty-nine clauses, was shortly afterwards introduced. It was
a great measure and aimed at the final settlement of the land question.
And, indeed, such an end, devoutly to be wished, would certainly have been
attained had the amendments pressed on the government during the passage
of the bill by the organ of the tenants been accepted and embodied in the
act.
Clause after clause was closely examined, and the defects exposed by Mr.
Sexton in a series of articles, inspired if not actually written by him in
the _Freeman_. He had done much service for Ireland in the past, but I
doubt if his great abilities had ever been better applied than to the work
of examination, elucidation, and amendment of the Land Bill of 1903.
His criticisms culminated in the publication of a schedule of amendments
which he claimed were necessary to the final settlement of the question.
It is worth while now putting them on record, for they have a true
historical value. It is now seen in the working of the act, that the
acceptance of some of the amendments contained in the schedule materially
improved the bill, while the omission of the others explains the necessity
for still further legislation on the subject.
The following is a summary of the amendments referred to:--
1. The rights of tenants under the Fair Rent Laws should be maintained
intact.
2. No non-judicial tenant should be excluded from purchase by reason
merely of his tenure. Caretakers of holdings of which they had previously
been tenants should have the rights of tenants for the purpose of
purchasing such holdings.
3. As a condition precedent to purchase, non-judicial rents and first term
rents fixed or agreed upon down to the end of 1896 should be reduced to
the average level, substantially of second term rents, and purchase should
not be transacted in the cases of non-judicial rents, or of such first
term rents, except upon this basis.
4. The purchase system being voluntary, the compulsory limits of price in
this bill should be struck out.
5. The aim of the system being to extinguish dual ownership and equal
treatment being essential both as between past and future transactions,
and also between the tenant who buys his holding and the landlord who buys
back his land sold by him to the State, no rent charge should be reserved.
Such a reservation would forever exclude the tenant from ownership, by
erecting a new and perpetual system of landlordism in the place of the
old.
6. The rate of interest on consols being now two and one-half per cent,
the new guaranteed stock might be issued at two and one-half, instead of
two and three-fourths as proposed, and by this means the decadal
reductions, instead of being abolished as the bill provides, might be
allowed at the rate of eight per cent; or, at the option of the purchaser,
the period during which his annuity would be payable could be shortened by
about ten years. If the annuity rate were three and one-half, the
purchaser might be allowed to choose between decadal reductions at the
rate of eleven per cent, and a term of redemption shorter by nearly
twenty years than that prescribed in the bill.
7. Sales of untenanted land, and, in particular, resales of demesne or
other land to vendors, should be subject to the needs of migration, of
enlarged holdings, and of making provision for evicted tenants, in the
case of each estate or district, and no evicted farm should be resold to
the vendor, or sold to a new tenant, if the evicted tenant, or his
personal representative, is willing to become the purchaser.
8. The cost of improvement of estates and untenanted land, being charged
to every purchaser and repaid by his annuity, should be provided for as
part of the advances required for the purposes of this act, leaving the
reserve fund available to the estates commissioners for cases of
exceptional need.
9. It is necessary to maintain the existing satisfactory condition that
the holding, or other land purchased, is to be sufficient security for the
repayment of the advance.
10. The Purchase Aid Fund should be increased to not less than twenty
millions; and distributed either in inverse ratio to the number of years'
purchase in each case, or by a uniform grant of a fixed number of years'
purchase to every selling landlord.
11. A term of years should be fixed in the bill, on the expiration of
which term the provisions for grants from the Purchase Aid Fund, resales
to landlords, and distribution of purchase money free of cost should cease
to operate.
12. The subject of sporting and mineral rights calls for clear provision
dictated in the public interest, instead of the ambiguous, loose, and
inconclusive proposals which appear in the bill.
13. It is requisite that the limit of advance to an evicted tenant be not
less than the ordinary limits; also, that provision be made for restoring
evicted tenants to their former holdings when vacant; for making
arrangements to that end when the holdings are occupied; and for stocking
the land.
14. The cramping restrictions imposed on the congested districts board,
which have effectually prevented that body from dealing with the great
agrarian evil of the West, would not be removed or substantially
diminished by the meagre proposals of the bill; nor can the privations and
miseries endured in the congested districts be sufficiently abated in any
other way than by such a redistribution of grazing ranches as will provide
the people of those districts with land enough to yield them the means of
living. As the guarantee fund--now ample enough for every purpose--is
henceforth to apply alike to congested and other districts, and as
advances for land purchase are seen to be free from risk, and special
treatment is to be applied to congested estates throughout the country, it
is evident that the time has come for a uniform system of land purchase,
and that this is to be secured, either by investing the congested
districts board, for all the purposes of land purchase in their particular
areas, with powers corresponding to those of the estates commissioners, or
else by giving the estates commissioners jurisdiction for land purchase in
the congested districts, and authorizing the board to apply its income
wholly to its various other objects of expenditure.
15. The proposals with regard to the Labourers' Acts are so trivial that
they cannot be amended. The government should be asked to appoint a
commission to inquire and report, this year, how the question may be
adequately dealt with; and a bill directed seriously to that end should be
passed into law next session.
The Irish Land Act, 1903, otherwise known as the Wyndham Act, from the
name of the Irish chief secretary who introduced it, came into force on
the 1st of November, 1903. This is not the place to set forth its
provisions, but the principal advantages which accrue to a selling
landlord and a purchasing tenant availing of its provisions may be briefly
stated. The entire purchase money agreed upon is paid to the landlord in
cash. No part of the purchase money is retained as a guarantee deposit.
For the purchase of a single holding the limitations of preceding acts are
extended to L7000.
The vendor of an estate shall receive in addition to the purchase money
from the tenants a bonus for his own immediate benefit. The landlord is
enabled to sell his demesne, and repurchase it at a profit. The landlord
may sell his estate direct to estate commissioners appointed by the act,
or to the congested districts board, and these bodies are enabled to
resell to the tenants after readjustment and partition of the holdings on
the estate if necessary. Enlarged powers of investment of purchase money
are conferred upon trustees. The principal advantages secured to the
tenant are as follows: At the end of sixty-eight and one-half years, a
tenant becomes owner in fee of his holding. As soon as the agreement to
purchase is signed, he ceases to be liable for rent. He is enabled to
repay the advance at the rate of three and one-fourth per cent of his
purchase money. (Though the reduction of the annuity rate from four per
cent under the previous act to three and one-fourth per cent under the
Wyndham Act is an undoubted advantage to a tenant, it is certainly to his
disadvantage that the amount set aside towards the sinking fund should be
reduced from one and one-fourth per cent and one per cent to one-half per
cent.) In congested districts the land commission, or congested districts
board, may purchase lands under certain conditions to enable them to deal
with the problem of congestion.
The greatest blot on the measure is undoubtedly what is known as the
"Zones." The act provides that if the price agreed upon between the
parties allows a reduction of not less than ten per cent nor more than
thirty per cent on a tenant's existing rent, in the case of a second term
rent, and a reduction of not less than twenty per cent nor more than forty
per cent in the case of a first term tenant, the bargain _must_ be
sanctioned by the commissioners without inquiring whether the land in
question is security for the "advance."
The result of this provision is that tenants have been wheedled or cajoled
into agreeing to bargains which they will find it difficult or impossible
to keep. The price of land became artificially inflated, and the average
of eighteen years' purchase paid for land in Ireland under the previous
Purchase Acts has been raised by five to seven years' purchase. It is
essential that free bargaining should be restored if purchase is to
proceed on sound economic lines. In spite of the efforts of the wisest of
their leaders, the Irish tenantry are rushing into bargains under the
Wyndham Act that may eventuate in dire consequences for themselves and for
the country.
The importation of Canadian cattle when it comes will have a serious
effect on the Irish produce market, and a further decline in produce
prices may be expected.
Will the Irish tenant be then able to discharge his liability to the State
and have sufficient margin for living? That is the question for the
future. The answer to it alone can settle whether we have yet reached
finality in the Irish Land Code.
Footnotes:
[1] Carlyle, Appendix, No. 17.
[2] See Lecky, II., 216 _et seq._
[3] T. P. O'Connor, "The Parnell Movement," pp. 53, 54.
Transcriber's Notes:
Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_.
Punctuation has been corrected without note.
Inconsistencies in spelling and hyphenation have been retained from the
original.