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not exceeding £5 in rateable value in the neighbourhood, or to tenants evicted from their holdings since 1878, or in case such tenant is dead, to a person nominated by the Land Commission as his representative.
It also gave power to the Commissioners to purchase untenanted land for the purpose of enlarging holdings and of creating new holdings; and to enable this work to be carried out satisfactorily, the Land Commission is given all the powers conferred on the Congested Districts Board by their Act of 1901 for facilitating re-sales to tenants.
SECTION XIII.
The Evicted Tenants Act, 1907.
A considerable number of evicted tenants had been reinstated in their holdings under the Act of 1903, or had been provided with new holdings where their former holdings were not available. Large sums of money (drawn from the Reserve Fund established under the Act of 1891, which was made available by section 43 of the Act of 1903) were expended in equipping these holdings and in financing reinstated tenants where, in the opinion of the Estates Commissioners, this was necessary. The provisions of the Act of 1903 were, however, found to be insufficient to carry out the intentions of the legislature, and in 1907 Mr. Birrell passed an Evicted Tenants Act, which enabled the Estates Commissioners to acquire untenanted land compulsorily for the purpose of providing holdings for tenants who, or whose predecessors, had been evicted from their holdings since the year 1878, and who had applied to the Commissioners before the 1st May, 1907. Up to the 31st March, 1916, as many as 13,656 persons had applied for holdings as evicted tenants. Of these, 7,338 were rejected by the Commissioners after enquiry; 2,469 did not apply within the prescribed time; 3,472 were actually reinstated in holdings; and 377 were still under consideration by the Commissioners.
Under the compulsory provisions of the Evicted Tenants Act (1907) the Estates Commissioners, up to the 31st March, 1916, acquired 26,512 acres, including turbary and mountain, comprised in 124 estates. The total sum sanctioned for the reinstatement of evicted tenants, including the improvement of holdings, erection of buildings, purchase of live stock, etc., amounted to £367,075, of which £251,837 was by way of free grant.
