The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-08-29 00:00:00

LORD O'HAGAN ON "THE IRISH
LAND ACT."

At the meeting of the British Association, held in Belfast
last week, in the "Economical Science and Statistics "
Section, Lord Ollagan, hi his eseellent and instructive ad-
dress, thus refers to the Irish Land Act
The changes in the social state of Ireland and the
legislation of later years, have fixed attention on our
County Courts and made some reforms in their pro-
cedure and some extension in their jurisdiction very
desirable. The Land Act created exigencies in con-
nexion with our agricultural and commercial life,
and they must be satisfied by a moderate and carefully
considered reform of institutions which have worked
well and command the confidence of the people. This
is one of the most important matters which can receive
the attention of the Legislature, and I am glad to say that
a beginning of improvement was made in the last Sea-
session by an Act which gives the chairman of the county /
power to adjudicate in small cases and within certain I
limits, although bond fide questions of title may have
arisen. The want of this power has often produced a
denial of justice to suitors whose poverty has forbidden
them to seek it in a superior Court, with the frequent con-
sequences of lawless contentions, violent assaults, and
sometimes lamentable homicides. (Hear, hear.) The
humble man who is wronged in fact or fancy, and
has found all available legal tribunals closed against
him, takes the law into his own hands and becomes
his own avenger. I hope this great mischief will now
exist no niore. (Cheers.) But the extension of jariediction
in title cases and the further concession of a limited
right to deal with transactions of partnerships are
only, I trust, the heralds of a more comprehensive
measure giving to our local Courts, with such modi-
fication as may be necessary, the equitable
jurisdiction already possessed by the County
Courts of England. (Cheers.) You will, I am glad
to say, have the opportunity of hearing a paper on
Land Tenure prepared by Sir George Campbell, who s
eminently qualified to speak with authority on that
momentous subject, and to whom the people of this
country owe serious obligations for the counsel and
assistance which his great ability and large experience
in another land enable him to afford during the dis-
cussions which preceded the passing of the Irish Land
Act. (Cheers.) Of that Act generally I have no pur-
pose to speak here. It has been in operation for too
brief a time, and its provisions have yet been too little
interpreted by judicial exposition to warrant a con-
fident pronouncement on many points connected with
it. That it has already been 01 signal advantage, and
will yield far greater benefits hereafter, there can be no
doubt; butl refer to it now only that I may say sword
of its purchase clauses and the best mode of giving '
them vitality and effect, a subject worthy of the atten-
tion of all who care for the prosperity of Ireland. As
to those clauses, there was no controversy in Parlia-
ment, they passed with universal approval through
both Houses. They recognized with all the authority
involved in so rare a unanimity of acceptance the value
of diffused proprietorship of land among our agricul-
tural classes. It is impossible to over-estimate their
importance to:the progress of this country in industry
and order. Yet they have a very inadequate operation
and remain almost a dead letter on the Statute
Book. I learn from a report of the Commissioners
of Public Works that since the passing of the Act
338 tenant farmers have purchased their hold-
ings, comprising an acreage of 22,116 acres, of
which the annual rent amounts to £13,141, at a
AN ASTONISHING OIL WELL IN gross cost of £219,522, including advances from
the Commissioners of £129,066. The report in.
CANADA. forms us, further, that the applications of tenant
The Titusville Herald gives the following discription of an farmers for loans under the statute have diminished
Oil Well in Canada : instead of increasing, and that the purchases of one
On the 23rd of March, 1873, the famous Troutman year have been 206, while only 106 were made in that
well WM struck on the western extremity of the Modoc which followed. These facts are disappointing in a
belt. It commenced spouting at the rate of 1,000 high degree and I call attention to them in this place
barrels per day, and has since produced 100,000 barrels that, if ppssible, the cause of the disappointment may
of oil. To day this well yields to its owners 40 barrels be ascertained and done away, and free and fruitful
per day. Eighteen wells have been sunk on the Trout- action given to legislative provisions among the very
man farm, which in all have yielded about 300,000 best which have been ever vouchsafed to us. Of
barrels up to date. In fact the Troutman farm hag course, I can't here discuss so large a question, but I
proved to be one of the most prolific in Butler county. may indicate my own assertion that in order to the
Teawells have been sunk east of it, north, south, and effective working of these provisions, it will be
west of it, clearly defining what is known as the necessary to facilitate still further the transfer of
Modoc belt. This belt crosses the main north-ea.st and land in small proportions by cheapening conveyances
south-west belt almost at right angles, and the circum- and validating titles at a small expense (cheers)
scribed space where the two belts cross or overlap and that for this purpose it will be essential
each other is called the Fourth Sand Territory, to extend the operations of the Record of Title
It was knrwn that this Modoc belt extended east , Office beyond the narrow sphere within which Par-
es far as Armstrong Run, but the test wells put , liamentary opinion confined it when it was origi-
down there gushed out for a few days at the Lally &signed, and to make it effective, as it has never
rate of 1,000 or 1,200 barrels, and then suddenly been, though years have elapsed since it WM opened,
dwindled down to diminutive proportions. This eas- by the application of the principle of compulsion,
tern I rojection was, therefore, temporarily abandoned, without the aid of which old habits, ignorant dislike of
and few (if any) operators imagined that it would be innovation, and powerful class interests will continue
worth drilling. The Butler county oil basin was just br nullify its influence. (Cheers.) The purpose of
beginning to show signs of exhaustion, and the area the Legislature to secure a complete and permanent
of all the prolific territory in that vicinity VMS pretty register of all dealings with property in the soil is of
well defined, when a few speculators ventured to run high policy and plain necessity, and must not be
a line of wells due east from Central Point, near balked by the supineness or the obstinacy of indivi-
I Petrolia. It was simply a wild cat venture, and the duals, whose own best interest will be promotel when
I owners of the wells had little expectatiern of making they are forced to aid in carrying out that purpose.
any large strike. The Parker well was one of these, (Cheers.) In addition, it will be necessary to reconsider
and it is now a matter of little consequence whether it i the fiscal arrangements of the office as well as of the
is producing one thousand, fifteen hundred, or twenty- Landed Estates Court to which it is attached, and to
five hundred barrels per day, the result will be just localise their action by the establishment of District
the same, as it proves beyond a doubt that we have Registries of easy access for small transactions and
just entered upon the eastern horn of the Morloc belt / with fees too moderate to bar approach to them.
dilemma. In showing up truthfully the exact ;tibia- / (Cheers). These seem to me the outlines of a reform
tion the case will not be altered, as the entire trade long desirable, but heretofore difficult from the via
have already discounted the well audits probable con- inertim of some and the active antagonism of others.
sequences upon the future condition of the market. I This reform should promptly be undertaken by Paula.
The road leading to the Parker well from Petrolia rnent, and which has already in principle given its
is in moderately good condition, and soon after sanction by its general approval of the bills introduced
leaving Central Point the traveller observes the words, by Lord Cairns dming the past Session. It is essential
"No smoking permitted here" in conspicuoue places. to Ireland, if we would have the action of a beneficial
After about two and a half miles ride the top of a hill law no longer paralyzed, that the passionate eagerness
is reached, where& loud roaring noise is distinctly heard, , with which the Irish people covet the possession of the
and eighty rods further on brings us in sight of the well. , soil should be indulged in legitimately and within the
A dense fog or mist envelopes the derrick, engine-31mm.. I limits of the law ; so that, instead of finding Rotten identi-
and tanks, while fully one thousand persons are there I lied with agrarian crime, we shall see it become ember-
gating on the wonder of Armstrongcounty. The derrick / dinate and ancillary to the equitable settlement of the
has conspicuously placed upon it in large letters, "Boss- I country, and the lasting contentment of its people by
well," and "Creswell City." There are two 250 barrel I prompting them to obtain, through honourable in-
tanks full of oil ; also two I,2oobarrel tanks, one of which dustry and manly efforts, that position of secure and
: is full. Three dams, one below the other, catches the drip- independent proprietorship which, according to all our
: pings, and a rivulet beyond, we are told, for ten miles experience of human nature, would lead them to iden-
r of a circuitous route to the Alleghany River, is covered tify their individual interests and objects with their
with oil. There are two 2-inch pipes connected with duty
to the State, and make them loyal and law-
the well, one of which is shut completely off, and out of abid citizens." (Cheers.)

DESTRUCTION OF WILD BEASTS.
From a report furnished by the Board of Revenue on
the destruction of wild beast during the years 1871-72
and 1872-73, it appears the destruction of wild beasts
in the Madras Presidency was vigorously prosecuted
and with greater success in the latter than in the
former year. The greater number of tigers were killed
in two ranges, the northern and the western. One
hundred and eighty-six were killed on an average in
each of the three years 1866-1869. Special rewards
in Kurnool and elsewhere raised the average reward
paid to 581 rupees in 1871-72, and to 49 rupees in 1871-
73, for each tiger killed. Cheetahs were killed in in-
creased numbers in the second year underreview. In the
three years from 1866 to 1869 there were 898 panthers
killed per annum on an average. 102 bears were
killed in 1871-72, and 115 in 1872-73. More than half
of the whole were killed in C,anjam. Rupees 5-11-0
per bead was paid for them on an average. Wolves
are nowhere numerous in Madras. Fourteen were
' killed in 1871-72, twenty in 1872-73. Rupees five's
head was paid for them. There were 161 hyenas killed
in Ganjam, Vizagauatam, Kistna, and Kurnool in the
two years, and forty-two in the seventeen other dis-
tricts. Rupees 34 were paid on an average for them.
The sum of 9,300 rupees was paid in Malabar in 1872-73
for the destruction of alligators. The grant of rewards
for these saurians has been discontinued excepting in