New-York tribune., 1902-04-11

proved system if they wish to do so, but they
will not be compelled to accept the government
plan. Neither ratepayers, reformers. school
boards nor voluntary school managers Will be
dra gged into the adoption of the new system
The series of compromises by which everybody
is to profit except the members of the school
boards tfor they to be swept out of office) is
TO be perrnissive but not compulsory. The whole
reform is left optional and subject TO local
referendum with the inherent probability that
it will be accepted in some districts and re-
iected in others. and that in the end confusion
will he worse confounded.
This pernissive clause is a curious illustration
of the lack Of courage Of ministers after they
have taken up in a comprehensive and practical
spirit a urgent public work They found
it difficult to agree among themselves upon the
details of the measure and forecast serious di-
visions among their own supporters in the Com
mons: and accordingly they shirked the respon-
sibility of making it an obligatory system. EX-
cluding London from its operation altogether
they empowered the districts TO accept or re-
ject it by a local option clause. Instead OF
pitched battle in Parliament between the ad-
vocates and opponents Of the reformed sys-
ter1 they preferred to raise the signal for que
rilla warfare throughout the country between
municipal reforrners and denonninat tionalists,
with school boards fighting for their Official
lives ratepayers rebelIing against the manten-
anre and Improvement Of voluntary schools
and denon1ina rionaI managers Tranglng over
the moralities of religious teaching Unity can
not be impaired TO the educational system by
local option. which retains school boards in one
district and establishes in another a county or
borough council with supreme authority over all
schools. nor can efficiency be promoted when
ratepavers are left to decide whether the de-
nominationaI schools with underpaid teachers
and inadequate plant are not good enough for
nf1hlfc PURPOSES The local referendum implies
abdication Of parliamentary authority in na-
tional education, and reluctance on the part Of
a weak ministry to accept fun responsibility for
the reformation OF an anomalous system. The
prOpoeed measure excites widespread suspicion
that the government has imposed upon local
taxpayers the relief Of the voluntary or denonl-
national schools as the Indispensable require
rnent for improving and broadening the whole
system Of education.
There is a similar lack OF fnality in the COM
p,ex Irish Land Purchase bill introduced by
Mr. Wyndhau last night In the ownership
and occupation OF land in Ireland as in the
English education system arrangements there
has been a dual system. with one compromise
after another and general trend in the drec-
ton OF State socialism Mr. Gladstone's act
OF 1870. passed almost simultaneously with Mr.,
Forster's Education BILL sanctioned this dual
system ana every Subsequent ldL4b IllcdSt4C mas
involved manipulation of the original conlpro-
mise with gradual substitution Of purchase
for judicial rents. and. incidentally. an enor-
nous increase in litigation. Mr.. Wyndham's
measure is a fresh compromise. with limitations
upon the operation Of the act of 1881 which has
been regarded by the tenants as charter OF
fair rents. and with extensions OF the purchase
system introduced by the present government
Mr. Redmond. Mr.. HeaIy and Mr. T. W. Russell
united in condemning the restrictions upon rent
fixing and in commanding the enlargement OF
the purchase scheme by an additional use OF
State credit the substitution of hard cash for
land stock as a financial inducement to land
lords the simplifcation of legal processes.
especially in proving title. and extension of
the Land Commissions operations the lines
of the settlement of the Dillon estate, through
the !nstrumentality of the Congested Districts
Board. The Nationalists cling tenaciously to
everything gained in the past, and hence
opposed to the modification of the act of 1881;
but they take everything they can get in the di-
rection of land purchase. and frankly confess
that they will never be satisfied until landlords
are compelled to sell their estates to the oc-
cupiers Mr.. Wyndhams act facilitates pur-
chase by direct and indirect inducements. but
does not render it compulsory.
The intervention of the State authority
for determining fair rents has involved inter
minable litigation and delay Mr.. Wyndham
proposes that when a tenant asks 10 have a fair
rent determined by the Land Court the land
lord shall be at liberty to demand purchase
price as a countermove: and that when this is
done the fair rent shall be established If the
landlord refuses TO SELL and the old rent If the
tenant declines to purchase. This is the feature
of the measure which is likely to encounter
strenuous resistance both from the Nationalists
and Mr. T w Russell. Otherwise there will be
little opposition although neither in Ulster nor
in Nationalist Ireland will the measure be
cepted as anything more than a long stride IN
the direction of compulsory purchase. Mr..
wyndham indeed. virtually admits that rent
flying can never be a finality when he states
that the courts are hopelessly clogged with
litigation and that 80 per cent of the cases are
annealed He also clearly anticipates the final
sattIArnent of the land question when he as
serts that thirty thousand purchasers are now
paying f170.0o0 to the State. and that the total
arrears are only ) shillings ) pence in every
f1OO While rent paying is an unending source
of litigation and controversy, occupiers remain
o,,t of arrears when their payments are made
IN the State property which their chill
dren will own. If they do not themselves
hold IL free from State mortgage. Land
nurchase has been carried so far in Ireland that
II will have to be made compulsory and uni
versal That is the logic Of the Irish situation.
Mr. Wyndham is operating against rent fixing
without rendering purchase obligatory; and con-
seouently his tentative measure. If enacted. will
be a compromise, to be patched up anew by an
~; Sao rorT T~afa and n