The Irish standard., 1903-09-12

Ouuef uttlc VI July SSu, M1Cudel
Davitt wrote to the Freeman's Journal
as follows:
Sir-The fummery and fapdoodle
with which the third reading Of the
Land Bill was hailed last night by
leaders of the Irish Party will not be
of much material help to those tenants
who have not been fortunate enough
to buy their holdings under the Ash
bourne Acts. They will be more con-
.cerned, fancy, about the actual facts
of this latest attempt at Westminster
settlement of the Irish Land Question.
Kindly allow me to point out few
of these facts.
1. The Wyndham Bill virtually
cuts the throat of the Land Act Of
1881. 1t dismisses Mr.. Morrough o.
Brien with a pension, and installs Mr..
Gerald FITZGERALD, an undisguised
landlord partisan, as the fiscal author
ity in matters relating to judicial
rents.
2. 1t supercedes the Ashbourne
Acts with their average free bargain
ings of IS years. purchase and decadal
reductions in favor of more or less
compulsory plan of purchase at an
average price according to Mr.. George
Wyndham) of 25 years. purchase-22
years from the tenant and three from
the state.
8. The existing purchase acts
enabled tenants to acquire proprietary
rights within period of 40 years. The
Wyndham Bill provides for period
defined in the words until the whole
of the advance in respect of which it
Nhe purchase money! is payable is
ascertained in the manner prescribed
by the treasury" That is, for a
period of about 20 years. In other
words, a tenant paying ESQ rent Il
year ago, and buying his holding at
IS years, would have to pay interest
upon a sum of 5000 for 40 years to be-
come the owner; whereas a similar
tenant, subject now to the same rent
will if he buys at Mr.. Wyndham's
average price, pay interest upon some
fl 500 for near 70 years.
4. There is no compulsion OH a
landlord to sell to tenant under the
Wyndham dispensation, but there are
several compulsory influences EN-
+pIoyed in the provisions of this meas
llre to force tenant to buy, and to
give several years more for his hold
ing than it's present market value.
S. The present bill, borrowing its
powers for that purpose from the Dun
raven treaty, lifts the price Of land in
the congested districts from an aver
age of some 1917 years to an average
of % years; assuming, as we must,
that owners of land in these districts
will demand, in their bargainings, the
equivalent in years purchase to 80 per
cent of their nominal incomes which
was guaranteed to all landlords in the
financial terms of the land conference
report.
6. The bill does not endanger the
interest of single acre of grazing or
1anching land in Connaught lit does not
propose to interfere with single eX,
listing interest in the Western grass.
land regions unless the graziers and
grabbers are willing to sell at Their
own price and profit.
Z. The bill instead of being a meas.
tre for the final settlement Of the
land question offers a sum equivalent
to 100000 year according to a re-
cent Freeman calculation), in the pro
visions of one of the clauses, to land
lords to enable them to retain the best
portion of their estates. In other
words and figures, sum equal to near
.one-third of the whole advance to be
made to the tenants for purposes OF
purchase is given to the landlords sc
as to buy themselves free of mort
cages, and thus to keep grip on the
best Of their land; while, on the Other
hand, the same bill asks the state tc
advance f12,OOO,OO0 and the tenants
E2OOOO,OOO to enable the same gentr,
10 dispose Of the other portions of thei,