THURSDAY, APRIL 3, 1902. THE LAND QUESTION IN IRELAND. The New Zealand TABLET

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 14, 3 April 1902, Page 16

THURSDAY, APRIL 3, 1902. THE LAND QUESTION IN IRELAND.

The New Zealand TABLET

* To promote the cause of Religion and Justice by the ways of Truth and Peace.' LEO XIII. to the N.Z. TABLET.

EISH affairs occupy a considerable amount of attention in the British Empire at the present time. If we are to believe the cable agent, who evidently gets his Irish news from the most approved Conservative sources, and keeps us well posted on the utterances of minor judges, who use their official positions to deliver political harangues, many landlords and their agents are greatly agitated over the activity of the United Irish League, and are urgently pressing the Government to suppress the ©bnoxious organisation and proclaim meetings called in connection with it. It is rather significant, in the face of the statement of the organs of the landlord class that Ireland is more or less disturbed, to find that the police, who are always extremely active in ferreting out political crimes, and now and again in concocting them, as in the case of Sergeant Sheridan and his friends, have not been able to give any real testimony that lawlessness abounds Kerry, which has a bad reputation in the opinioi of the landlord class for being particularly susceptible to the charms of the League, presents us with the spectacle of ihe County Court Judge being given white gloves in Killarney, Listowel, and Tralee. The same has been the case in many of the other counties. We would like to know how many Recorders in England have had a similar experience. The Conservative Press would have us believe that it is almost impossible for landlords in many districts to collect Iheir rents. Under such circumstances it would naturally be expected that they would hail with pleasure any scheme which would enable them to get rid of these troublesome tenants ; they would facilitate in every way the sale of their properties at reasonable prices, and be only too willing to fall in with the proposal for compulsory sale as advocated by the J rish party in the House of Commons. Yet we find that the opposite is the case. There are few estates in Ireland on which the tenants are not prepared to bny their holdings at a rate equal to 18 years' purchase. This seems to be the limit which the Government authorities are prepared to sanction, as they consider that any higher amount would be unreasonable, and would handicap the tenanD too heavily, and thereby endanger the security he has to give to the State which advauces the purchase money. Even under the cumbersome and expensive legal machinery which now prevails a number of tenants have come to terms with their landlords within the past few years, the result being that peace, progress, and prosperity now reign in these districts which were remarkable ten years ago for being the scene of poverty, stagnation, hopelessness, and considerable social unrest. Under their arrangement with the State the tillers of soil are now paying fiom 25 to 40 per cent. less for their holdings than they were under the old regime, besides which they have the satisfaction of feeling that they are not at the caprice of either landlord or agent, and that in a certain number of years their holdings will be freehold. Since the purchase scheme came into operation the annual charges by way of interest on loan and reduction of capital have been paid with regularity, there have been no arrears, and the Government is quite satisfied with the measure of success which has attended the experiment. If the landlords are so badly treated by their tenants as their special organs contend,Jwe

jrould naturally expccfc them to be only too anxious to sell %heir properties without being forced to do so by the Legislature. But the fact is they have put every obstacle in the way of such sales. They came out in their true colors at a convention held recently when they resolved not to sell at less than 27 years' purchase based on the judicial rents— an advance of 50 per cent, on what is considered a fair price. This is a move in the direction of preventing tenants from purchasing, for even if they were prepared to pay such an exorbitant price the Government would not lend the money, as the annual charges would be so heavy that it would be impossible for the borrower to meet his obligations. * Mr. Wyndham, speaking at Belfast the other day to a select gathering of landlords and their friends, said the Government would never consent to a Compulsory Sale Act. Now that word ' never ' is one which Ministers should be very chary about using. It has been used on former occasions by members of a Government in regard to certain measures which, later on, acting on the mandate of the people, they caused to be placed on the Statute Book. We know that a king said he would ' never ' sign a certain relief measure, but he had to reconsider his decision. A proposal that is considered too revolutionary to-day, becomes the law of the land on the morrow, and in a short time is amended so as to keep pace with the progress of the times. The acquisition of estates by the Government of New Zealand was considered a most revolutionary measure — as it undoubtedly was — when first introduced, but now we look on it as a matter of course. The Irish landlords designate compulsory sale of their properties to the tenants as confiscation and robbery, and it is evident the Chief Secretary for Ireland holds somewhat similar opinions. He and his party are apparently prepared to stand by the landlords, who are determined on getting their pound of flesh. They will see that property has its full rights, no matter what may happen to the human beings who drag out a miserable existence in their efforts to meet the demands of those who neither toil nor spin, and whose only interest in such land.* seems to be rent receivers. When the measure for this compulsory acquirement of estates came into force in this Colony, there was an outcry on the part of large property owners, who designated it a most iniquitous law, and said it would be the ruin of the Colony. Now the land-owners of New Zealand had some measure of right on their side, and were much aggrieved individuals compared with the average Irish landlords, for they used their brains and capital in working their estates. The generality of Irish landlords use neither brains, energy, nor capital on their property. They graciously permit their tenants to supply tLese requisites, and then tax them for the privilege. Furthermore, many of them are absentees ; they aie perpetually engaged in drawing the life-blood out of the country ; they take everything, and give nothing in return. No country could stand such treatment, as it would impoverish the most productive land on the face of the earth. Most people in New Zealand now admit that the Land for Settlements Act is a most beneficent measure, and that it has proved of immense benefit to great numbers of people who would never have had a chance of getting on to the land were it not for the facilities it affords. And if we in a new and thinly-populated country find it necessary to take land compulsoiily for settlement, why should not the Imperial Government do the same thing in Ireland, where the necessity exists to a considerably greater extent ? Jf the Government of New Zealand considers it just and equitable to compel an individual to part with his land for the benefit of the public at large, how much more equitable ought it be for the Imperial Government to force a land-owner to sell his property at a fair price to those who have been for years cultivating and reclaiming that land, and adding to the value of it by inexhausted irr> provements ? There is nothing improper or inequitable in the proposal that land-owners should be forced to sell their lands to the tenants at a fair price. It is a principle of political economy that where the interests of the individual and the community clash, the individual should suffer. The farming community in Ireland have been the sufferers for many generations, and if there is to be any suffering in the future it is about time the land-owners should have some experience of it.

Already three provinces of Ireland through their representa ives have declared themselves in favor of the compulsory sale of the estates to the tenants, and now Ulster, thanks to the energy and enthusiasm of Mr T TV EnssFrr i« coming into line with the rest of Ireland on this vital que - Hh P Th f, firSfcbl 7 f« the 'rooting of the tenant farmer in the soil was struck in East Down the other day, when a strong a ivocate of the principle defeated a Government nominee. Ihe Government attempted to minimise the defeat of their candidate by twitting the Tresbytemn ministers wifh hT'h^ 1 b^! ng entered into » ™holy alliance with the Catholics. The reply of the sturdy Presbyterian* was practically this, ' That whatever were £ PosfthEE MM r m T gS W VZt nOt " C fi ° lle I Cfc f Ot rack - r *nts in Ulster.' Mi. T. W. Russell sacrificed his position as a member of he Government when he saw that his Party would not take up the question. They tried to shut his mouth by an offer of an appointment worth £1500 a year, but he declined to change his principles. lie is a strong Unionist and a sturdy Presbyterian, but this does not prevent him from speaking his mind freely on England's treatment of Ireland, and saying things which if uttered by a Nationalist member, n 1 2182 18 ? USG ° T f bnn S in g hi m »nder the notice of the tastle Authorities. In an article contributed to the February number of a London review he asks < Why should there be peace and contentment in Ireland ? Can things be on right lines in a country where the people rush from its shores as if it were plague-stricken ? 'J he life-blood of the country is being drained away. In another decade Ireland will be a country of old men and old women. With such a fact haunting us at every turn ought there to be peace > Can any real lover of bis country remain silent ? ' He declares that two things must be done to ensure the peace of Ireland-the peasant must be rooted in the soil, and the Imperial Parliament must take a large and generous view of Irish affairs. < I must say,' he concludes, 'to the class so dominant in the country that their day of domination is over ; that they are citizens not rulers, and that they countr 1 )CG % ChaDCe and 6ghb their Way in a comm °a