The New Zealand TABLET THURSDAY, JUNE 12, 1902. THE IRISH LAND BILL.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 21, 12 June 1902, Page 17

The New Zealand TABLET

THURSDAY, JUNE 12, 1902. THE IRISH LAND BILL.

* To promote /hprause of Uclijivn and Justice by Ihr 'rays of Truth mid Pare.'

Lio XIII to tln< N/ Tablet

§YW

V before the Caster recess Mr. Wvxmmr, Chief Secretary for lieland, introduced m the House of Commons his Irish Land Bill. Although the la'e^t s-chen.e for the settlement of the agrarian trouble in Ireland was introduced by the mo\er in a speech of great lucidity, still, in consequence of the com plicated nature of the proposals, it was impossible at a ;-horL notice for those most

interested —the liish representatives —to express any definite opinion Hoarding it. If there were any who had teen sanguine enough to hope that the (Government would introduce even a modified scheme of compulsory sale, they were grievously disappointed, for there was nothing of the kind in the Bill, and indeed no thoughtful person could expect anything else fioni a party which has four great Irish landlords as its principal supporteis. Kver since the British Parliament came to lecognise that the Irish tenant i ad any rights, that au<rn*t body lies been engaged in periodical efforts to regulate the relations of tenant and landlord. That Parliament, Lad ntvei seriously grappled with th s question, which has been the root of neatly all Irieh discontent, was made manifest by Mr. \Vyndha.m on the occasion referred to, when he said that forty Acts in all had been passed, and that they bad been a decided failure, a burden on the taxpayer, and a source of \e\aMous and interminable legislation. W hai, a coniisMon of failure? In nearly every e\i>e onlll1 1< ■ n.tioduu urn of one or other of these mcafcuie'N it was contttiiKd that, the final stage in the agiaii.in trouble bad been reached, and that heucefotth peace and contentment were assured to the unfortunate cultivator of the soil. Perhaps to some extent the^e anticipations would have been realiseel wetc it not that circumstances were bung continually alterul by economic cond tions. li'cnts Vat were considered fair twenty yi ars a<:o, when the r sli farmer had few competitors in the Kngash markets, would be impossible to-day when the l^nghdi ( nisumer has the pick and choice: of the best prodm t- of the Aus'ialaMau Colonies, the United Ma'es, Denmark, . tgintme, and. to ciown all, the almost illimitable phrus of Men-. r J he tendency ot late years i\ for price-, of faim produce to go down, with a dicidcel improvement m qiuii!), so that the Knglish people find it much cheap* no tmpoit lioni abroid than to produce at home. In most of the countries which supply the English maiket the cultivator of the soil is the owner theieof, and any margin of profit which refrains alter meeting the cost of production goes to h s cicdit, but in lieland the fanner must make two margins ol profit —one for the upkeep of the landlord, and the balance, which under present couelitions is infinitesimal, goe^ for the support of himself arid his family. Under such c lruinManccs the lot of the Irish farmer grows harder uar by je.ir, and to make matteis worse, he now finds the fo.umi competitor underselling him at Ins own door. JS'otwiihvaiidnm the depreciation m the prices of farm produce, the Jnsh lanuloid has never bet n able to understand that hi-, portion of the profit, fchould suil'er any diminution, and with commendable magi, annuity has always allowed the unl'oitnnate culthator to biar the double burden. As the tenant hai been powerless to remedy this injustice, and as the landlord was generally immovable, the Legislature had from time to time lo step in and try to equalise the bunl'-n, hence the necessity for so much land legislation.

The Land Act, of 1881, which might be described as a rent-fixing measure, was and might yet be productive of great benefit to the farmers of Ireland, but unfortunately its machinery has completely broken down ; the landlords have blocked the courts with appeals, and the tenants, nob being able to afford the luxury of expensive litigation, have lost faith in its ben* fits. It was the hope of the framers of the measure that when a certain number of rents had been fixed ofher parties would sop what the rents should be and arrive at a settlement without litigation. The reverse has been the case. Since this mea,Mire became, law 330,000 cases have been taken into court, over 240,000 have been fixed, but there have been 74,000 appeals lodged against these rents. The rents were originally fixed for a term of 15 years, and now there are 22,000 appeals against the second-term rents, that is rents that were fixed 15 years after they were fixed the first time. Upwa'ds of 50 per cent, of the decisions regarding fair rent have been appealed against, and there are at present 10,000 appeals on the books of the courts with no immediate prospect of the judges overtaking the work for a number of years. Many of the appeals not yet decided were lodged four or five years ago. What is the use of an Act to a small farmer when the whole of his substance very often is wasted in protracted litigation with a wealthy landlord? The knowledge that the latest and perhaps the most beneficial measure of land legislation had been a failure in consequence of defective machinery was one of the prime motives in inducing the Chief Secretary for Ireland to bring in a Bill on new lines. * The provisions of the Bill have been summarised as follow : The Government will purchase any property which a landlord wishes to sell, subject to certain formal conditions. All the expenses of preparing an estate for sale incurred at present by the vendor will, under the xiew Act, be borne by the Government, and the present Land Commission will take the place of the landlord when he obtains the absent of three-fourths of the tenants to a sale of the pro]ert\ at an agreed price. The annual instalments to be paid by the purchasing tenants will be at the rate of £3 15s per £100, instead of £4 as at present. This, be it noted, will be an inducement to the tenants to give a higher price than they otherui.se would, and consequently it may be said that the reduction in the anmril instalment will be of much more benefit to the \enelors than to the purchasers. In future the State will p,y cash to the landlord instead of fluctuating land stock as formerly, A landlord after selling the whole; of an estate to the Land Commission can, if he f-o desire, buy back any portion of his former property, not exceeding in value the sum of £10.000, and he will obtain the sune State credit, for the transaction as the tenant does in buying his holding. A provision of the Bill which. 1 <is met with general approval is that under certain conditions the tenants of small holdings can buy adjacent lands for the enlargement of ilu ir farms. Should the Bill become law, which in very doubtful, t»,e machineiy for the working of it will be placed in charge of a tribunal composed of two officials who are to be known as the Estate Commissioners, and it is almost needless to observe that its success will depend in a great measure on die manner in which these functionaries will discharge the'r duties. In the past Government officials in Ireland have been notorious for their anxiety to conserve the interest of the landlord to the detriment, of that of the tenant, and it is perhaps too much to hope that the Estate Commissioners, whoever they may be, will rise superior to their surroundings. There is a saying to the effect that you must first catch your hare before you can cook it, and in like manner the i- state Commissioner^ must first find a landlord willing to sell before they can purchase. This is the weak feature of the measure. 1 here is to be no compulsion a" to sale, and the landowner w ho exacts the highest rent is the ha^t likely to tell, as the money received for his pioperty would not yield an income marly so large as that which he receives a.s a rack-rent from hs impoverished tenantry. Mr. Wyndhaji admitted in the House of Commons that the number of landlords willing (o sell their properties was growing less every year. r J hih i\ a signific mt admission in face of the fact that the Consen ative Press in the United Kingdom, and their echo the cab'c agent, are for ever bewailing the tribulations of Irish landlords, and how difficult it is for them to collect their rents. Now if the Irish tenant is such a bad payer as his

detractors make him out to be, it would seem that the majority of landlords would be only too anxious to turn their property into ready cash when the opportunity offered. But they have not shown any great anxiety to do so, and so we may reasonably conclude that so long as they can extract excessive rents with the aid of police and military, it is much more profitable than investing their money in Government stock. * ( In introducing the Bill Mr. Wyndham paid a great compliment to the farmers who had purchased their holdings within the past few yeais. He showed what excellent payers they were, and how the State in its transactions with 80,000 purchasers under the Acts of 1«91 and 1896 had not suffered any loss. In a word, it would be impossible to find in any other part of the world such a record for punctuality as had been made by these men. He said :— i Land purchase has this merit— that the State has incurred no loss by it, and is, I believe, exposed to no risk. Let me make that good. Taking the Acts of 1891 and 1896 ; under those Acts more than 30,000 purchasers were paying annually £171,214 to the State. I have no case of bad debts to offer. Then let me take unpunctuality. In Ireland, we know that previous to purchase, people book a view of arrears which I may properly describe as liberal. Under these two Acts, out of 30,000 purchasers, there are in all, in Ireland, only 69 men six months late, only 12 who are a year late, and, in all Ireland, only one man out of 30,000 who is 18 months late with his payments. It comes to this, that we are £463 in arrears in £171,000, or a matter of 5s 5d in every £100.' * The provisions of the Bill being somewhat complicated, and as it seemed to be a step in the right direction, the Irish members reserved their criticism until they had fully mastered^ its details. Mr. T. W. Russell and his friends in the North were the first to discover a very serious flaw in the measure. The price to be paid for the land is to be fixed by the Estate Commissioners, against whose decision there is no appeal. Now if the tenants consider the price exorbitant and refuse to purchase, prefering to remain as payers of rent they are then debarred from having their rents fixed by the land courts. In a word, the tenant will lose all the benefit of the best feature of Mr. Gladstone's land legislation of 1881. Mr. Wyndham's intentions may be very good, but it is evident that the landlord element in the Cabinet has forced his hand in inserting a clause which. if allowed to pass unchallenged, would be a retrograde step. Should the Government persevere with the Bill there is sure to be a sharp debate on the retention of this clause, and as the Chief Secretary has gaid that unless the Bill as a whole is passed he will drop it, its fate is doubtful, for Mr. Russell has given notice of the following motion on the second reading :—«: — « While acknowledging the inducements contained in Part 1 of the Bill under which the owners of impoverished estates would be enabled to si 11 their interest therein, and thus aid the abolition of dual ownership in land, the House regrets and deplores those provisions in Part 3 which practically destroy the rent-fixing clauses of the Act of 1881, and declines to proceed further with the Bill while those provisions form part of ths Government policy.' This notice has been drawn up with the full concurrence of Mr. Redmond, whose party will support it. The Liberal Opposition have also intimated their intention of strongly opposing any attempt to nullify the best feature of the land legislation which they helped to pass. Should Mr. Wyndham, therefore, persist in retaining the obnoxious clause he will either have to carry the Bill through the Commons with the aid of the landlords or drop it altogether. ]f the Government are really in earnest in their endeavors to remove even some of the causes of Irish discontent and agrarian troubles they should be prepared to modify their measure in the direction indicated by those most interested. Otherwise it will be regarded by the majority of the Irish people as a one-sided measure framed in the interests of the landlords, but of no practical value to the one class in Ireland who are in real and urgent need of help.