THE OTOGO DAILY TIMES SATURDAY, JULY 19, 1890.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 8861, 19 July 1890, Page 2

THE OTOGO DAILY TIMES SATURDAY, JULY 19, 1890.

The Irish Land Purchase Bill, which has recently passed the second reading in the House of Commons, ia an attempt by the Conservative Government to solve the chronic Irish question on the lines of creating a class of occupying proprietors on the most extensive scale. The system of dual ownership, instituted by the Landlord and Tenant Act of 1870, and regulated by Mr Gladstone's Land Act of 1881, has not proved the complete success that might reasonably have been expected. The experimental legislation, however, of these Acts in the direction of making use of the credit of the State to enable the tenants to purchase their holdings, and especially of the AshbourneActsof 1885 and 1888, by which the sum of ten millions was authorised to be advanced by the Treasury to purchasing tenants, has so far been successful, since at the end of last year the amounts in arrear were not more than 2 per cent, of the instalments due. The experience of these Acts thus holds out some hope that the more general application of the principle will not be attended with any great risk of loss to the British taxpayer who has to find the money. The present Bill is an extension of the policy of these Acts. Under it guaranteed land stock to the amount of 33 millions, redeemable at par in 25 years, and bearing interest at the rate of 2f per cent, per annum, is proposed to be created, to be applied in payment of the purchase money for the landlords' interest in the tenants' holding. When an agreement for the sale of the landlord's interest in the holding to the tenant has been approved by the Land department constituted by the Bill, the title to the holding is to vest at once in the tenant, all conflicting claims to the purchase money by encumbrancers and others being decided by the court without requiring the presence of the tenant, whose title will be a Parliamentary one. Instead of being liable to the former rent the holding will be chargeable with an annuity, amounting for the first five yeara to 80 per cent, ' i

of the rent previously paid, and afterwards ufttil the expiration of 49 years froln the time of purchase to 4 per cent, of the purchase money advanced j after which the holding becomes the property of the tenant, freed from any further payment. The amount of the annuity will in no case be equal to the former rent; and according to the hypothetical case put by Mr Balfour in introducing the Bill, where a holding whoso rental iB LIQO per. annum | has been sold for It years' purchase, the annuity payable will for the first five years amount to LBO a year, falling at the end of that time to LGS-^ the additional LI 2 per annum duringthe first five -years being retained by the Government as an insurance fund to meet any accidental inability to pay on the part 61 the tenant, arising from causes beyond his control, such as bad seasons, low prices, &c. In cases where the purchase money amounts to a greater number of years' purchase the annuity will be proportionately increased, but 20 years' purchase of the net rent, which is defined as the gross rent, after deducting the landlord's share of the taxes, is the limit of the amount to be advanced in any case, and any excess must be found by the tenant from his own resourcesf. The greater the amount so found, the greater will be the security of the Government for payment of the annuity.

The payment or purchase money to ths landlord is to be made in the guaranteed land stock; but the whole amount will not in the first instance be handed over to the landlord, as one-fifth of the purchase money will be retained by the Land department as a guarantee deposit for the payments being duly made in respect of the holding purchased. This provision appears to be a hard feature in the Bill, as the landlord is made liable for the failure of the tenant to pay his instalments, after he has parted with all control over the holding, and when he has no power of interfering to compel the tenant to keep up his payments. In addition to these securities against loss— i.e., the addition to the annuity payable, and the retention of part of the purchase money—the English Exchequer is further secured against loss by the creation of a guarantee fund from the contributions made by the Treasury for local purposes in Ireland. At present, grants from the consolidated fund are made for rates on Government property in Ireland, for the maintenance of pauper lunatics in Irish district asylums, in aid of the salaries of schoolmasters, schoolmistresses, and medical officers of workhouses, and in aid of the education of children in National schools. In addition to these Imperial contributions to local purposes, the Bill proposes that the sum of L 40.000 per annum, the proceeds of licence fees, shall be transferred to local authorities, and under an Act passed two years ago, nine-tenths of the receipts from the probate duties—this share now amounting to L 200,000 per annum—are paid to the guardians of the poor, and to the road authoritiesin Ireland. Thesefunds are all made liable to be impounded by the Treasury as an additional security for the discharge of their obligations by the. pur chasing tenants. The L 40,000 from the licence fees, and the probate duties are to be paid into the guarantee fund until the sum of LiiOO.OOO is accumulated, which is to form the cash guarantee fund ; while the other contributions are to form a contingent fund, upon which the Treasury may fall back in case of a general combination of tenants against payment of their annuities, similar to those combinations which have been witnessed in Ireland more than once during the last 10 years. In case of a general refusal to pay on the part of the tenants, all that the English Treasury would have to do would be"to withhold payment of these contributions and recoup itself thus against any losa of interest payable on the land stock. In order that innocent counties may not be made to suffer for the sins of their guilty neighbours, the guarantee fund is apportioned among the different counties in the same way as the land stock is advanced for purchase of holdings. It seemed to be generally admitted by the Government speakers in the debate on the Bill, that in case of any great disaster, such as the famine of 1847, or a general fall of prices of agricultural produce such as took place after the opening up of the North-Western States of America, rendering it impossible for the tenants to keep up their payments, these guarantees would not be enforced, but that the loss would be borne by the British taxpayer. Whether that long-suffering personage will view with cheerfulness such a prospect of indefinite loss is somewhat doubtful, though he will doubtlessly accept with resignation that in addition to all the others imposed upon him.

The principle of State aided purchase contained in the Bill is so far in harmony with previous measures and proposals of the Liberal party as greatly to embarrass them in their opposition to the scheme. Mr Gladstone's proposal in 1886 to advance the sum of 150 millions for the purpose of buying out the landlords was on a far larger scale; the main differences between Mr Gladstone's scheme and the present one being that the application of the present measure is not compulsory, and that it does not involve the erection of an independent Irish Executive, which was to be responsible for the collection of the instalments and to act as a "buffer" between the Treasury and the purchasing tenants. The absence of any such buffer was put forward by Mr Gladstone as one of the main objections to the Conservative scheme, though it is difficult to see how the security of the Treasury would be improved by its having as its debtor a foreign and possibly hostile Government. In so far as the discontent in Ireland is due to agrarian causes and the hunger of the Irish tenant to own the land on which he lives, the Bill is a skilfully devised effort to remove it, and will, it is to be hoped, prove as successful as it is well planned. The benefits it offers to the tenants are both immediate and remote—immediate in reducing their rents, which have already been largely reduced by the Land Commission from time to time since the Land Act of 1881; and remote in the prospect of acquiring the freehold at the end of 49 years. The experience of the Ashbourne Acts shows that this prospect may be relied upon to keep the tenants up to the mark in paying the instalments, as ! every year will make what they have i to lose by neglect to do so more valuable, u,nd the power the Treasury has to stop its contributions for local purposes, will, by inflicting direct pecuniary loss on the locality, go far to prevent public sympathy froirt supporting them in such conduct,

In our supplement this morning will be found iocal.reports, letters to the editor, reviews of new books, Passing Notes by " Oivis," and other matter.

Tile Legislative Council adjourned yesterday out of respect to tho memory of Mr R, Turn* bull* M.H.R.

In the House of Representatives the afternoon was again nntirely taken up with answering questions, one of these with reference to the advance made to the Taranaki Harbour Board to pay interest on loan provoking a long disdußsioiS) in Itie course of which members- of' the Public Accounts Committee gave an explanation as to the manner in which the advance was Banotioned. In the evening Mr Tanner inteh. cepted Supply with a motion to postpone the general election's until the results of the census were known, but ibis was negatived, and consideration of the Estimates was proceeded with. Opposition members appear to be determined to try to reduce nearly all the items on, the Estimates. . - .. .... -

The Telegraph department informs us that the Adelaide office advises that all cable messages up to the departure: of the Bteamer Almora, from Thursday Island to-day, will be forwarded to go by that steamer. A copy also will ba forwarded to Port Darwin, in case the cablo is restored before the steamer reaches Java. No extra Charge will be made. Our Wellington correspondent telegraphed last night as follows:—" I regret to say that Mrs Valentine, wife of the member for Waikaia, i 3 dangerously ill, and her life to-night is almost despaired of. Three doctors are in attendance. Great sympathy is felt for her husband."

The following tenders were received for the Duncdin Police Station buildings:—Accepted : M'Leod and Shaw, Invercargill, L 5857. Declined :0. and W. Gore, Dunedin, £6564; David Low, Danedin, £6637; Sl'Millau and Mofiatt, Dunedin, £6773; D. W. Woods, Dunedin, £7132; R, J. Meikle, Dunedin, £7149; A. Bain and Co., Dunedin, £7174; E. Sandilands, Dunedin, £7342; Whitaker and Walker, Dunedin, £7578.

A " snatch thief " —and a very impudentone— is still at large. On Thursday evening a lady, who resides in Heciot row, was accosted at her own gate, shortly after 6 o'clock, as she was returning home, by a man whoenatcbed out of her hand a sealskin bag which she wns carrying and which contained her purse and other articles. A'grocer's assistant, who' was leaving goods a few yards off, went to the lady's help on hearing her screams, but her assailant had taken to his heels up the street in the direction of the Town Belt. Another case of a lady having been accosted by a man in the vicinity of the Queen's Drive during the last few days, is reported. It is evident that it is not safe at present for Indies to be out after dark in tho neighbourhood of the Town Belt, except when accompanied by a member of the opposite sex.

The following Crown lands were disposed of at the local office during the past week:—Section 13, block XIII, Greenvalo district, 318 a3r 28p, cash price! 12s 6d, G. F. Dunnet; section 8, block IX, Waipahi district, 127 a2r sp, ca9h price 15s, Eliza Blapp; section 2, block X(II, Moeraki district, 156 alr 26p, cash price 103, J. L. Laurenson—all on perpetual lease; section 29, biock X, Warepa district, 81a Or Bp, cash price 12s 65, R. Gillespie, on deferred payment.

A boy named Henry Watson, 12 years of age, residing in Canongate street, was taken to thehospital a day or two ago suffering severely through being frost-bitten, caused by sleeping out in the bush. It appears that the boy has been uncontrollable lately, and that he has been playing the truant from the Arthur street School and sleeping away from home at nights— presumably among scrub and in the bush, —the result of which was that he was found on the belt in a very helpless etata on Thursday morning and taken to tho hospital. At first it was thought that it would have been necessary to amputate one if not both of the boy's feet) but he is now slowly progressing towards recovery, and there is now apparently no necessity for resorting to extreme measures.

Mr D. Bellhouse will represent the Canterbury Industrial Association at the Protection Conference to be opened in Dunedin on Monday next, and Mr Bell is on his way as representative of the Auckland Association, Messrs W. Swan and W. Hutchison are the delegates of the Otago Protection League.

The second of the course of Ambulance lectures under tho St. |John Association was delivered at the Fire Brigade station on Thursday evening. Dr Colquhoun took as his subject, " Hemorrhage." The organs of the blood circulation were fully described, and instruction!] given aa to the treatment of all cases of bleeding. A practical class was held at the conclusion of the lecture. Next week the subject will be " Fractures."

The scrutineers appointed at the meeting of shareholders in the Mornington Tramway Company on Thursday night to examine the voting papers in connection with the election of directors met yesterday afternoon and decided the figures to be as under:—H, Law, 8015 votes; N. Y. A. Wales, 4430 votes; G. Esther, 4360 votes ; informal, 210 votes.

With reference to tho paragraph that appeared in our issue of yesterday,taken from the Oamaru Mail, to the effect that several valuable pictures sent from that district to the exhibition in Dunedin have gone amissing, we have made inquiries from Mr Hodgkins, the honsecretary of the Fine Arts Committee, and he assures us that, so far as he knows, there is no foundation for the statement, beyond this—that an Oamaru exhibitor is said to have lost a picture of some value placed by him in charge of the Oamaru Committee for exhibition in the Oamaru court. The picture in question was never in the custody of either the Fine Arts Committee or the commissioners.

Notwithstanding the disagreeable weather of 1 last night, Girton Hall was crowded to the doors to hear the concert given by the members of tho Ladies' Liederkranz. The solo vocalists of tho evening were Miss Jessie Fish, who sang " Tho three wishes" (Pinsuti) in a very pleasing manner; Miss Poppelwell, who gave a very swee* and singularly perfect rendition of "Aye Karia" (Gounod), receiving an encore; and Miss Grace IrwiD, whose selection, "The singers" (Stark), was received with every demonstration of approval. In addition, a trio, " The eglantine" (Wiirst), was sung very effectively by Misses Mills, Hardy, and Andersoni and a song and chorus ("By the mill") was rendsred by Misses Mills and Hardy, and was heartily redemanded. A piano solo, "Valse brilliante" (Moskowski), by Miss Jennie West, and a violin solo, "Air v.irie " (Handel), by Miss Gertrude Dale, were other items that proved most acceptable, the former being enthusiastically encored, Miss West responding with " Elfland " (Barnett). Miss Poppelwell's recitation, "Her letter" (Bret Harte), was given in capital style, and her elocution could hardly have been improyed on. She received an encore. Four part songs were given by the Ladies' Liederkranz—those moat appreciated being " Hark to the wind " (Sharp) and " The sunbeam" (Smart). Miss Jennie West acted as conductress and accompanist during the evening in a thoroughly capable manner.