The Irish Land Acts/Progress under the Land Purchase Acts

by William Frederick Bailey

SECTION XV

Progress under the Land Purchase Acts.

The further experience of the effects of Land Purchase acquired since the passing of the Act of 1903 has only served to confirm the views already expressed in Section 11. With rare exceptions, the purchasing tenants have been contented and prosperous, and have paid their annuities with exemplary punctuality. The disadvantages of the existing system apparent in 1902 have been greatly minimised. Under Sections 12 and 13 of the Act of 1903 the Estates Commissioners were enabled to expend money on the improvement of estates or untenanted land purchased, or proposed to be purchased by them; and when such expenditure resulted in an advanced price, they were empowered to recover the money so spent by increasing the resale price of the land affected. The latter power was extended by the Evicted Tenants Act of 1907 (Sec. 17) to lands sold to a re-instated evicted tenant by the owner of the estate; and was further extended by the Irish Land Act, 1909, to lands sold by landlords to tenants through the Estates Commissioners. So much of this expenditure on improvements as, in the opinion of the Commissioners, can be recovered—having regard to the security for the payment of the Land Purchase Annuities—is included in the price of the holding so improved; and the balance is treated as a grant not repayable.

The expenditure of the Estates Commissioners on the improvement of estates is made once and for all on the occasion of the sale; when the holdings have been vested by the Land Commission in the tenant purchasers, any further financial assistance which may be required for improvement purposes may be obtained from the Board of Public Works under the Land Improvement (Ireland) Acts, or the Department of Agriculture. In this manner the evils resulting from tenants beginning their career as proprietors with insufficient capital have been largely modified, with, on the whole, eminently satisfactory results. Tenants who have received advances of this nature have not infrequently been enabled thereby to save and invest in the improvement of their holdings still further amounts of their own.

The other principal evil already mentioned—the lack of sufficient land—has been remedied in general by the purchase by the Estates Commissioners of untenanted land with which to enlarge existing holdings. So much attention, however, has been devoted to the treatment of uneconomic holdings, that a separate section will be needed for its proper consideration. But before we pass on to deal with the problem of congestion, the following statistical summary will enable the reader to take a concise view of the progress made under the Land Purchase Acts from their inception.

The following table gives a summary of the number of tenant purchasers and the amount of advances made under the various Acts from 1870 to 31st March, 1916:

	Act.	No. of Purchasers.	Amount of Advances made.
1.	Landlord and Tenant Act, 1870	877	£514,536
2.	Land Law (Ireland) Act, 1881	731	240,801
3.	Land Purchase Acts, 1885, 1887, 1888, and 1889	25,367	9,992,536
4.	Land Purchase Acts, 1891, 1896	46,834	13,146,892
5.	Irish Land Act, 1903	196,069	65,285,827
6.	Evicted Tenants Act, 1907	805	408,135
7.	Irish Land Act, 1909	29,652	6,824,555
	Total	300,335	96,413,282

In addition to the holdings sold under the Land Purchase Acts, 6,057 holdings, representing a purchase money of £1,674,841, were also sold to tenants under the Irish Church Act, 1869. These are excluded from the preceding table, as the Church Act is not included in the definition of the Land Purchase Acts. The sales to Church tenants were not carried out by means of advances as under the Land Purchase Acts, but by way of credit to the Church fund, and a large number of the sales were to direct tenants of Church lands and to others, subject to tenancies in respect of which subsequent sales under the Land Purchase Acts have been carried out and still take place.

The Land Purchase provisions of the Act of 1870 were administered by the Board of Public Works (Ireland), those of the Acts 1881-1896 by the Irish Land Commission, and those of the Acts 1903-1909 by the Estates Commissioners. The advances under the Acts of 1870-1888 were made in cash, and the advances under the Acts of 1891-6 were made in Guaranteed Land Stock (2¾ per cent.) The financial provisions in force with regard to the Acts of 1903 and 1909 are described fully in Section XIV.

The following table gives the Rates of Annuity (distinguishing amounts for Interest and Sinking Fund), and the estiimate number of years payable under the various Land Purchase Acts:—

Purchase Act.	Rate of Annuity.	Rate of Interest comprised in Annuity.	Rate of Sinking Fund comprised in Annuity.	Number of years payable (estimated).
	Per cent.	Per cent.	Per cent.
1881	5	3½	1½	35
1885	4	3⅛	⅞	49
1891	4	2¾	1¼	49
1896	As in Act of	1891, with	decadal reductions	73
1903	3¼	2¾	½	68½
1909	3½	3	½	65½

The next table gives (1) the Number of Holdings; (2) Area; (3) Poor Law Valuation; and (4) Purchase Money of (a) Lands Sold and Vested; (6) in respect of which proceedings for sale have been instituted and are pending; and (c) in respect of which proceedings for sale had not been instituted up to 31st March, 1916.

	Lands sold and vested in purchasing Tenants or in the Estates Commissioners or Congested Districts Board for resale to Tenants.	Lands in respect of which proceedings for sale have been instituted and are pending	Lands in respect of which proceedings for sale have not been instituted under the Land Purchase Acts.	Total.
	Acts	1870-1896.
Number of Holdings	73,812	—	—	73,812
Area	2,508,937	—	—	2,508,937
Poor Law Valuation	1,399,188	—	—	1,399,188
Purchase Money	24,779,176	—	—	24,779,176
	Acts	1903-1909.
Number of Holdings	226,549	109,023	—	—
Area	7,417,435	3,490,416	5,857,814	16,765,665
Poor Law Valuation	3,678,691	1,305,483	3,655,503	8,639,677
Purchase Money	73,281,414	25,870,325	72,858,372	172,010,111
	Gross	Totals.
Number of Holdings	300,361	109,023	—	—
Area	9,926,372	3,490,416	5,857,814	19,274,602
Poor Law Valuation	5,077,879	1,305,483	3,655,503	10,038,865
Purchase Money	98,060,590	25,870,325	72,858,372	196,789,287

The estimate of the purchase money of the unsold land has been arrived at on the basis of the average number of years' purchase of the poor law valuation of the lands sold under the Acts 1903-1909, and on the assumption that all land in Ireland valued for poor law purposes as agricultural land not yet sold under the Land Purchase Acts will be sold under such Acts. The following facts should, however, be noted. There are certain lands which cannot, or probably will not, form the subject of proceedings for sale under the existing Land Purchase Acts—as, for instance, large holdings and demesne lands the purchase money of which would exceed the statutory limits of advances under those Acts; certain lands in the neighbourhood of cities and towns; market gardens; labourers' plots; and parcels of land already held in fee-simple by the occupiers. Again, the advances made under the 1903 Act were repayable by Annuities at the rate of 3¼ per cent., but under the Act of 1909 all advances in respect of future sales will be repayable by annuities at the rate of 3½ per cent., and experience has shown that the increase in the annuity rate has resulted in a decrease in the purchase money. Having regard to these considerations, it is highly probable that the estimated purchase money given above will, in the event, be materially reduced. It is not possible to estimate the number of "holdings unsold"—i.e., the number of portions of land in respect of which separate advances may ultimately be made under the Land Purchase Acts. The Acts of 1903 and 1909 contain special provisions enabling the Estates Commissioners and the Congested Districts Board to acquire untenanted land, and to divide it up into allotments, and it is not possible to calculate how much untenanted land may be so acquired or to estimate the number of holdings into which it may be divided. At present, where an owner is in possession of untenanted land, it is usually returned in the published statistics as one holding.

Untenanted lands acquired by the Commissioners, also tenanted lands surrendered by migrants, etc., on allotment of new holdings, are utilised either in the enlargement of existing holdings or in providing new holdings. Particulars of the allotments made up to 31st March, 1916, are given by Provinces in the following table:—

Province.	Existing Holdings enlarged.		New Holdings provided for Evicted Tenants, Sons of Tenants, Migrants, Trustees for pasturage, &c.		Total.
	No.	Area.	No.	Area.	No.	Area.
Ulster	630	4,120	209	16,980	839	21,100
Leinster	2,119	32,781	1,055	42,918	3,174	75,699
Connaught	4,663	80,564	1,619	59,060	6,282	139,624
Munster	1,638	20,675	1,011	51,524	2,649	72,199
Total	9,050	138,140	3,894	170,482	12,944	308,622

As appears from the twenty-third Report of the Congested Districts Board, in the period ending 31st March, 1916, have utilised 62,680 acres of untenanted lands, of which 25,691 acres have been used to enlarge 1,387 existing holdings, and the remainder—36,989 acres—to create 1,151 new holdings.