AMENDING THE LAND ACT.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XII, Issue 1, 25 April 1884, Page 25

AMENDING THE LAND ACT.

(Dublin Freeman, March 8.) We publish to-day one of the most practical pronouncements, pregnant with substantial fruit for Ireland, that it has been our fortune to communicate to the public. It regards the Purchase Clauses of the Land Act, and it concerns not only the tenants but the landlords of Ireland. In response to a memorial signed by over eighty of the Irish members of Parliament of every class and shade and creed, and to which the Irish Hierarchy, including the Cardinal, his Eminence's three contemporary Archbishops, and almost all the other Bishops have given their signatures, the Prime Minister • has sent a direct reply to Captain O'Sbea, the member for Clare, that the Government Bill for the Amendment of the Purchase Clauses of the Land Act sxtendingtbe facilities for purchase will be introduced immediately after Easter. Mr. Gladstone expresses the hope that the Bill will be supported so unanimously that its passage into law will not be hindered. We have over and over again urged the advance of the whole of the purchase money, and the extension of the period for repayment. This is now the prayer of the memorial. We have no hesitation in saying that if the Government really desire their Bill to pass, and the greatest strength of the Land Acts to become operative, they will comply with this prayer. The tenants are not more anxious for it than the landlords. Lord Castletown's Committee show that the landlords are anxious to sell. At present threefourths of the purchase money are advanced, and the period for repayment is thirty-five years. The requirement is that the entire sum shall be advanced, and that the period for repayment shall be extended, so as to make the annual redemption more nearly correspond to the rental of the holdings. We need not say that up to this the Purchase Clauses of the Land Acts have been almost inoperative. The tenants must be afforded inducements and facilities to buy before they will avail of the Purchase Clauses. The State will be only following the example of Continental Governments when they adopt measures to create a peasant proprietary, which is the backbone of a country. The interest excited by the anticipation of an extension of . the Purchase Clauses is second only to that aroused by the announce-,-ment of the Land Act itself. We await the proposals of the Govei -. -* ment Bill with anxiety.