The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 1908. THE IRISH LAND BILL.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 283, 26 November 1908, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 1908. THE IRISH LAND BILL.

Far the cauae that Jacfc* assistance. For the wrong thai needs resistance, for the future in the distance, Afitf tlm good that ie« can do.

Sines Mr. Wyndham's Irish Land Act was passed in 1903, a great deal has been done by the British Government to solve the agrarian problem in Ireland. But though England has boldly and generously set her hand to the task of repairing the wrongs under which the Irish rural population have so long laboured, much remains to be achieved before the task can be completed. The process of purchasing land from the owners for the beneSt of the tenant is necessarily slow; the change of tenure for various reasons that we ma_v subsequently explain, has increased the weight of the financial bur-

dens already borne by the Irish, and it has become evident that to carry out the policy which England lias adopted, the original estimate of outlay on which the Wyndham Act was based must be con-

siderably exceeded. For all these reasons it has become necessary for the Imperial

authorities to make a further cllort to expedite the process of throwing open the land to the small tenant farmers; and Mr. Bin-ell's new Irish I.nnd Bill is thus the natural sequel and corollary to the scheme adopted by the Unionist Government five years ago.

To appreciate the position as it stands to-day, it is necessary to recall the chief points in the Wyndham scheme of land purchase. It provided for the peaceful and equitable expropriation of (he Irish landlords, who were to be bought out by their tenants with the assistance of the State. For this purpose the British Government undertook to raise £100,000,000, and to advance it to the tenants on the security of the land purchased, not more than £5,000,000 being thus expended in any one year. The State lent the money to the purchasing tenant at 3$ per cent, but of this i per cent wa-s a sinking fund that would wipe out the tenant's liability in GB£ years, and would then leave him owner of his kind in freehold. To induce landlords to sell, a fund of £12,000,000 was established, from which bonuses to the landowners could be provided. But in spite of the material encouragement offered to landlords by this Land Purchase Aid fund, and in spite of the generous terms arranged for the tenants, the work of land settlement i≤ laborious and slow. One phase of the difficulty is

dealt with by Mr. Birrell in his cabled remarks on the report of the. Dudley Commission. This report, after careful investigation of the agrarian position throughout Ireland, recommended compulsory purchase as the only possible way of settling the Irish land question. But while we believe with Mr. Birrell and Lord Dudley that the owners of the great pastoral and grazing rstates in Ireland "must decide between the cattle and the people," it is clear that the t-hief obstacle to the successful prosecution of the policy laid down by the Wyndham Act is its inadequate financial basis.

Taking it at its best, the system of land transfer in Ireland is always tedious and expensive. The Local Registration of Titles Act is said to have been verjNbadly administered, and the staff of the Estates Commissioners' Office, in spite of constant remonstrances to the Treasury, has been kept far below its proper strength. At the present time it is said that no vendor under the \Yyndham Act need hope to be paid his purchase money within five years after he has signed the agreement foregoing his right to rent. .During the interval he, of course, receives interest on his purchase money at 3J per cent. But meantime he has usually to pay interest on his mortgages at from ih to 5\ per cent, and he cannot touch his share in the Land Purchase Act Fund —the bonus by which he has been induced to sell—till the bar-

gain is completed. On the other hand, the tenant who has agreed to purchase on the understanding that he will have to pay 3J per cent, for 68* years, finds that he has to pay 3i per cent, for a number of years in addition before he can begin to pay off his debt to the State and clear his holding. On the side of the State, moreover, we have to consider that stocks of all kinds have fallen heavily since 1903, and the Irish Development Grant of £160,000 a year, which was to cover deficiencies on flotation of the land purchase debentures, is almost exhausted. This is the point to which Mr. Birrell refers when in. his cabled speech introducing his new bill he promises "to relieve the Irish ratepayers of prospective losses on issues of stock." At present the position of the Land Purchase Fund means either "an increased burden on the local rates or a disorganisation of necessary local institutions"; and it is satisfactory to learn from a speech delivered by Mr. Asquith as Chancellor of the Exhcequer last year, that "nobody contemplates thai any loss involved in Irish Land PuTchase transactions shall fall on the Irish rates." But, unfortunately, this relief alone will not be sufficient to remedy all the defects of the present policy, or to provide sufficient funds for its successful prosecu-

Last year a Treasury Departmental Committee, presided over by Mr Runciman, inquired into the state of the Ijind Purchase S'und; but it was specifically warned that its suggestions "must not impose any additional charge on the Exchequer." This limitation naturally robbed the Runciman report of most of its value, but several suggestions have been made to broaden the financial basis of the Land Purchase Fund without involving further borrowing or special taxation. One proposal is to raise the money required by the issue of Consols, instead of Irish Land stock. Another suggestion made by Sir Alexander Henderson is that the Treasury should raise the sums temporarily required by the issue of shortdated bills, redeemable at par by future issups of guaranteed stock. Another proposal put forward by the Secretary of the Landowners' Convention would enable the State to utilise the sinking fund for the redemption of stock already issued under the Act to enhance the notation price of future issues. But none of these schemes has found fay-

our in the sight of the Treasury; for it has long since become evident that the financial limit for the scheme originally fixed by Mr Wyndham is altogether too restricted, and that instead of £100,000,000 something like £160,000,000 or, even as Mr Birrell now suggests, £180,000,000 will be required to carry out the scheme effectively. All subsidiary proposals are thus merely subterfuges that are likely to do more harm thau good by diverting the attention of the authorities from this all-important question. As to what should , be done by the Imperial Government at the present juncture, we may quote a few suggestions from a well-informed article in a recent is=n<- of the "National Keview," a journal which certainly does not err

ori the side of partiality for Ireland: "The block in the Estates Commissioner's

offices must be relieved. Means must be found to pay vendors within, at the most, two years o£ the lodgment of their agreements. If this cannot be brought about, advances must be made to encum-

bered vendors at a moderate rate of

interest to pay off charges. Arrangements must be made which will provide as effective inducements to those landlords and tenants who are still outside the operation of the Act as those by

which agreements which have already been signed have been brought about. These things must be done without placing any onerous burden on the Irish ratepayers, and at the least possible cost to the general taxpayer." These proposals are exceedingly instructive and significant as emanating from a professedly Unionist source. But among politicians of all shades and views at Heme it is now a well established conviction that the Irish Land Purchase policy., having been once adopted by the nation and the Government, must not be allowed to break down. If the settlement of this problem was worth £ 12 r 000;000 in cash, and

.£100,000,000 m credit five years ag6, it is certainly worth to-day whatever additional sums in credit or cash the

Imperial authorities require. And so strongly does the tide of political opinion run in favour of sonw? practicable settlement of the endless agrarian question in Ireland, that we may even expect to see Parliament adopt that most "Socialistic" of all proposals, the compulsory resumption of landed estates, rather than allow this experiment, on which so much, depends, to fail.