126 GREAT BRIT.UN AND IRELAND - MISCELLANEOUS 



the factor which makes it most difficult to base any conclusions as to fair 

 rents on agricultural prices only. The farmers of Ireland have profited dur- 

 ing the past few years both by good harvests and by a rise in prices, but por- 

 tion of their increased profits have been swept away by the increase in the 

 cost of labour which has taken place during the same years. lyastly the 

 valuer must consider the question of improvements and of depreciation — 

 how much of the produce is due to the landlord's or tenant's improvements, 

 what return he will allow to the tenant for the capital and labour which 

 he has sunk in the farm, and whether the tenant has wilfully allowed the 

 land to depreciate before the arrival of the period for fixing a rent on the 

 holding. 



§ 8. "Fair rents " as the basis of land purchase. 



The question of the principles involved in fixing fair rents has by this 

 lost some of its importance. In the first place fair rents for a first term 

 have now been fixed on the vast majority of holdings in Ireland. Up to 

 the 31st. March last 455,000 applications to have fair rents fixed had been 

 disposed of. The total number of agricultural holdings in Ireland accord- 

 ing to the Census of 1911 was 535,675 and taking into account the fact that 

 the fair rent clauses of the Act of 1881 do not apply to town parks, home 

 farms, demesnes, and pasture lands of over £50 valuation (increased to 

 £100 by the Act of 1896) it may be said that a fair rent has been fixed on 

 practically every holding in Ireland coming within the Act of 1881. 



Moreover, it was only natural that landlords who were reduced by the 

 Fair Rent Acts to the position of mere pensioners and rent-chargers on their 

 estates should be anxious to sell their lands outright. They had lost their 

 interest in the land and from their point of view it would be much better 

 to divest themselves of the very limited ownership which remained to them, 

 and to realise the value of their estates in cash or stock which at all events 

 would be their own to dispose of as they wished. The tenants on the other 

 hand were equally anxious to buy out the landlords and to put an end to 

 the disturbance and uncertainty caused by the revision of fair rents every 

 fifteen years. In fact both parties were dissatisfied with the restrictions 

 on the full ownership of their property, and each wished to have that pro- 

 perty in a shape which wotdd enable them to do as they liked with their 

 own, to quote a phrase in common use in Ireland. The State by pledging 

 its credit enabled the transaction to be carried out on terms which were to 

 the advantage of both parties, and the result is that the purchase of their 

 holdings by the tenants from the landlords has progressed at such a rate as 

 to diminish by two- thirds the area which can be afEected by the Fair Rent Acts 

 in the future. Lands to the value of over £120,000,000 have been sold, 

 or are the subject of proceedings for sale under the Land Purchase Acts, 

 and it is estimated that the balance, in respect of which proceedings for sale 

 under these Acts have not been instituted, amounts to about £60,000,000. 



