THE IRISH LAND BILL.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11546, 31 March 1903, Page 4

THE IRISH LAND BILL.

In fulfilment of their promise made a few weeks back, the Imperial Government have introduced an Irish Land Bill in the House of Commons. Only tiie main features of what is described as a bold and comprehensive measure are given in the cable messages, and it will be necessary to await fuller details before an opinion can be formed as to how the scheme will work if carried into operation. It is evident, however, from the chorus of approval with which the Bill has been received on both sides of the Irish Channel, that Mr Wyndham'e scheme is looked upon as likely to offer a satisfactory solution of the vexed and intricate problem with which at deals. In essentials the new measure follows on the lines of the proposals formulated by the recent Conference of Irish landlords and tenants, and although some of those proposals have been considerably modified, the Bill must nevertheless strike the unprejudiced observer as singularly liberal in the concessions which at offers. What in aimed at is to make the Irish tenants owners of, their holdings, and in order to induce landlords to sell, bonuses totalling £12,000,000 will be distributed the latter. The cash bonus will vary with the importance of the holdings sold, but the inducement will be greatest in the case of small holdings. The Dublin Conference proposed that either the landlord's income should be. assured by the State, or that a capital sum should be paid producing an equivalent return at three or three and a quarter per cent. The modified concession provided for in the Bill may cause some disappointment among landowners. Nevertheless, it is believed that at leoet sixty per cent, of them will regard as satisfactory the inducement to sell. As regards the tenante, the facilities for purchasing their holdings are of a most generous character. Tenants will pay eeven-eightbs of the value of the holdings by instalments, as of a terminable annuity, extending over a period of sixty-eight and a ihalf years. .The remaining one-eighth will be a perpetual rent-charge upon the holding, "thus enab- " ling the State," as the cable message puts it, "to control the buyers and restrict sub"division and mortgage." Mr Redmond, a prominent representative of the tenantry at the Dublin Conference, objects that the perpetual rent charge is too large, and will create the impression that the tenants are not the absolute owners of the land. Under the scheme suggested by the Conference the tenant was to pay the amount of the pur chase money at such a rate as would at once secure a reduction'of from fifteen , to twenty-five per cent, on second-term rente. That is u> say, a tenant paying £60 a year in Tent might acquire the freehold by ait annual payment of only £42 10s. The Government's proposal is not on> quite so liberal a scale, but is. will be admitted that the terms offered to the tenante—payment of seven-eighths of the value over a period of 68J years—are exceedingly generous in character, and well deserving of support by the claes for whose benefit they have been framed. Considering that the Government proposes to spend £100,000,000 upon the scheme, most people will agree that the concessions are quite liberal enough, and that the Irish people wili be well-advised to take advantage of the preegat favourable opportunity to obtain a (settlement of their long-standing grievances.