The Irish Land Acts/Congestion
SECTION XVI.
Congestion.
Two Classes of Occupiers of Land in Ireland—Economic and Uneconomic.
The occupiers of Irish agricultural holdings are of two classes—those having economic and those having uneconomic farms. By an economic holding I mean one of sufficient productive capacity to support a family at a reasonable standard of comfort without help from outside sources. The occupier of an economic holding has land which, in fertility, quantity and situation, enables him to live at a reasonable standard of comfort out of the produce and pay a rent. The other class lives on and partly out of the land, but land of a character, quantity or situation that will not support a family at a proper standard of living without extraneous help. In the case of the first class, the fairness of the rent is the most important consideration; in the case of the second, the land and rent are often minor elements in the struggle for existence. The land is either so limited in amount or of so unproductive a character that without outside help, such as the wages of labour, or contributions from friends and relations, the income of this class would sink below the amount necessary for subsistence, and actual starvation would ensue. It has often been pointed out that agricultural rent is or was in many cases in Ireland paid for farms out of which no true economic rent could be earned. This means, as every economist knows, that, were the ordinary and necessary cost of production, including the remuneration of labour, deducted from the return from the cultivation of the land, no surplus would remain for the payment of rent. Consequently, the rent paid for such land is not true agricultural rent. It is more of the nature of house rent paid by workingmen in towns, who, out of the wages that they earn in their various employments, spend certain portions in food, clothing, and shelter. But the Irish peasant, who tries to support his family on an insufficient farm, has not the advantage of having a demand for his labour at hand. He has either to emigrate, to migrate, or to live below the proper standard of decency and comfort. He is neither in the position of the farmer nor of the labourer. He is the occupier of a piece of land on which he builds his cabin, and pays a rent which is supposed to be agricultural, but which is really not earnable out of the land, but out of whatever other supplementary income he is able to obtain by migratory labour or by contributions from outside sources. The Irish Fair Rents Acts are supposed to deal only with agricultural holdings. The rents fixed under them are intended to be agricultural and economic rents. It is evident to anyone who has examined the circumstances of the small holdings of the West of Ireland that the rents assessed on them under the Land Acts in many cases are not agricultural rents, but are payments more of the nature of site rents, or the rents of non-agricultural holdings which were not supposed to be subject to the provisions of the Irish Fair Rent Acts at all. Had the Fair Rent Acts been more strictly administered, the greater number of the small holdings on the western seaboard and other parts of Ireland would have been excluded, and applications to fix agricultural rents on them would have been dismissed.
Confusion of Treatment of Occupiers of Economic and Uneconomic Holdings.
The importance of the view that I here put forward lies mainly in the fact that until the passing of the Act of 1891, under which the Congested Districts Board was created, no attempt was made to distinguish between the two classes of occupiers of Irish land. The occupiers of economic and uneconomic farms were subject to the same laws, and were treated in the same manner. No attempt was ever made to distinguish between the man who could make his rent out of his land and the man who could not. Both were included in the Fair Rent provisions of the Act of 1881 as it was administered, and a rent was assessed on what was practically the site for a cabin as if it were a farm. This confusion of treatment of two different problems renders it necessary to consider carefully the evolution of the Irish Land Acts if we are to understand intelligently the problem that presents itself in dealing with congestion in Ireland.
Special treatment for the congested districts was not thought of in the earlier remedial Land Acts. The Act of 1881, if strictly administered, as I have said, would have excluded most of the holdings in such districts. After twenty years' experience of this Act, it was found that its provisions, even though amended repeatedly, did not meet the special difficulties. The congested districts were not withdrawn from the operations of the various Land Acts—merely additional powers were given for ameliorating the condition of the people in certain defined localities.
Two Classes of Occupiers in Ireland.—Establishment of the Congested Districts Board.
The various statutes that I have summarised dealt with the rights and obligations of Irish tenants, without any attempt at economic discrimination. No distinction was drawn between impoverished and uneconomic occupiers, and those who were able to make a living and pay a rent out of their holdings. It was, indeed, recognised that the smaller tenants had a special claim to protection, and in the Compensation for Disturbance Clause of the Act of 1870 (section 3) the tenant of a holding valued at £10 and under might be awarded a sum not exceeding seven years' rent, while a tenant above £100 valuation could in no case get more than one year's rent. It was, however, gradually borne in on Statesmen dealing with Ireland that something besides the "three F's" was necessary if the periodical famines and endemic misery of the poorer occupiers of the West of Ireland were to be grappled with. It was recognised that in some parts of the country the average character of the holdings was below the level that made a reasonable standard of living possible, and that special means should be adopted to improve the condition of the people. The establishment of the Congested Districts Board, in 1891, was the first attempt made by legislative enactment to discriminate between the impoverished occupiers of Irish land and those who had holdings capable of affording a means of livelihood.
The term "congestion" has become generic in Ireland. It has acquired a special meaning as applied to quasi agricultural population living on holdings insufficient to support a family. The definition of a congested district given in the Act of 1891 is a district in which more than twenty per cent. of the people live in electoral divisions of which the total rateable value, when divided by the number of the population, gives a sum of less than thirty shillings for each person. This definition is purely arbitrary, and, as a fact, includes regions through which one may drive for miles without seeing a human habitation, and excludes districts in which the people are crowded together on totally insufficient holdings. The problem is not so much one of locality as of the condition of the people. Owing to the various historical reasons, an excessive population, having regard to the means of subsistence, is to be found on the large area of bad land that extends along the western seaboard of Ireland from Cork to Donegal. That part of the country has come to be considered as the true region of congestion, or agricultural poverty, and undoubtedly there it is most pronounced and most obtrusive. It would, however, be a mistake to assume that the same problem does not arise in other parts of Ireland—even in the Province of Leinster—in an acute form.
Statutes dealing with Congestion.—Act of 1891.—Act of 1893.—Act of 1894.—Act of 1896.—Act of 1899.—Act of 1901.—Act of 1903.
It is not necessary to describe in detail the various statutes that deal with congestion in Ireland. The Congested Districts Board was founded under the authority of section 34 of the Purchase of Land (Ireland) Act, 1891, to continue for twenty years, "and thereafter until Parliament shall otherwise determine." It was given power (section 39) to aid migration and emigration within a Congested Districts County, to sell suitable seed potatoes and seed oats to occupiers, to aid and develop agriculture, forestry, the breeding of live stock and poultry, weaving, spinning, fishing (including the construction of piers and harbours, the supply of fishing boats and gear, and industries connected with fishing), and any other suitable industries. Powers were also given for the enlargement of holdings, whether subject to purchase annuities or to rents to private owners, but these powers were so circumscribed and guarded as to be unworkable. The Board was given an income to commence with of £4l,250 a year. In 1893 an Act was passed (56 & 57 Vic., c. 35) which gave the Board power to acquire land and to hold it as landlords for the enlargement of holdings and for the purposes of the Land Purchase Acts. In 1894 another Act was passed, which enabled the Board to give a guarantee to the Land Commission on selling to a tenant purchaser within such limits as the Treasury might fix, for the repayment of the annuity. Such guarantee enabled the Land Commission to dispense with the retention of any sum out of the purchase money as a guarantee deposit, a practice which, if followed, would have seriously crippled the operations of the Board. The Land Law Act of 1896 gave power to the Board to obtain an advance from the Land Commission for the purchase of estates "in like manner as if the Board were a tenant purchasing his holding." This Act contained some provisions that greatly hampered the Board. Thus, an advance could not be obtained by a tenant valued at under £10 for the re-purchase of his holding. Also section 40 (2) enabled court tenants and temporary tenants to obtain advances under the Purchase Acts in the case of sales of estates in the Land Judge's Court. This meant that the lands that were most required by the Board for the relief of congestion were commonly disposed of to graziers and others in such a way as to prevent their being acquired by the Board. The Congested Districts Act of 1889 cleared away these two obstacles to the work of the Board, and also enabled the Land Commission to make advances for the redemption of head rents, etc., and increased the Parliamentary Grant from £6,500 to £25,000. The Congested Districts Board Act of 1901 gave a limited power of dealing with obstructive tenants in the re-arrangement of the estates purchased. It also gave the Board all the powers of entry on a holding subject to a statutory tenancy for the purposes of mining, quarrying, cutting timber or turf, opening or making roads, fences, drains and watercourses, hunting, fishing, shooting, etc., given to the landlord by section 6 (sub-section 5) of the Act of 1881, and further extended these powers to holdings not subject to statutory tenancies. The Act also enabled the Board to purchase land outside a Congested Districts County with the approval of the Lord Lieutenant. The Land Act of 1903 gave increased facilities to the Board for the purchase of estates, similar to those given to the Estates Commissioners under the Act. It also gave the Board the discretionary power of deciding whether an advance should be made to a purchaser; of what amount the advance should be; and how far the security was sufficient. The collection of the purchase annuities so made, however, was still left to the Land Commission. The Act also added £20,000 to the annual income of the Board, to be drawn from the Irish Development Grant (section 38).
The Act of 1903 enabled the Estates Commissioners to deal with congestion under two procedures. They might buy an estate, after making due inquiry, under section 6 and if that estate included untenanted land, they could divide it among the holders of uneconomic farms. They could expend money out of the Reserve Fund placed at their disposal (section 43) either by way of free grafts or by advances, to be recouped by additions to the annuity to be paid by the purchaser. As, however, this Reserve Fund amounted only to the sum of £250,000, and as it had to be used not alone for the improvement of land, but also for the reinstatement of evicted tenants, it was soon exhausted, and the Estates Commissioners had to carry on this work by means of a sum annually voted by Parliament.
The second method allowed by the Act is to treat the property purchased as a "congested estate." This is defined by the Act [section 6 (5)] as "an estate not less than half the area of which consists of holdings not exceeding five [raised to seven by Act of 1909] pounds in rateable value, or of mountain or bog land, or not less than a quarter of the area of which is held in rundale or intermixed plots." The Act provides for a loss in the purchase of such estates of 10 per cent, on the purchase money (sections 9 and 44); such loss to be paid as part of the expenses of the Land Commission.
Notwithstanding all this special legislation, it was felt that land purchase under the voluntary method would not solve the problem of the West of Ireland.
A Royal Commission, under the chairmanship of Lord Dudley, was appointed in 1906, which took a great deal of evidence, and reported in 1908. Its recommendations were embodied in Mr. Birrell's Land Act of 1909, under which the constitution, powers, duties and income of the Congested Districts Board were enlarged and reconstituted. The new Board consisted of fourteen members, three of whom are ex-officio, nine are appointed by the Crown, and two are paid permanent members. The annual income of the Board was raised from £86,250 to £250,000, and its operations were extended so as to comprise the Counties of Donegal, Sligo, Leitrim, Roscommon, Mayo, Galway, Kerry, and parts of Clare and Cork.
Since the passing of this Act, the Land Commission cannot enter into an agreement for the purchase of land situate in any of these Congested Districts Counties without the consent of the Congested Districts Board, unless such land is required for the purposes of the Evicted Tenants Act; and no Congested Estate can be sold under the Land Purchase Acts in a Congested Districts County to persons other than the Congested Districts Board without the consent of that Board; but this provision does not apply to the case of any sale of a Congested Estate in pursuance of an Originating Application or Request, lodged before the passing of the Act. The power of purchasing estates and lands compulsorily through the Estates Commissioners is given to the Board within their district.