I06 GREAT BRITAIN AND IREI.AND - MISCEI^LANEOUS 



passing of the Act of 1886, which was designed to remove the grievances 

 spoken of above. 



The principal provisions of the Act were that a crofter should not be 

 removed from his holding except for the breach of certain statutory condi- 

 tions, that he should have the right to have a fair rent fixed by pubHc 

 authority, and that on renouncing or being removed from his holding he 

 should receive compensation for improvements effected by himself or his 

 predecessors in the same family. The crofter was defined as " any person 

 who at the passing of the Act is tenant of a holding from year to year, who 

 resides on his holding, the annual rent of which does not exceed £30 in 

 money, and which is situated within a crofting parish, and the successors of 

 such person, being his heirs or legatees. " A crofting parish was defined as 

 " a parish in which there are at the commencement of this Act, or have been 

 within 80 years prior thereto, holdings consisting of arable land held with 

 a right of pasturage in common with others, and in which there still are ten- 

 ants from year to year, who reside on their holdings, the annual rent of which 

 respectively does not exceed £ 30 in money, at the commencement of this 

 Act." The return relating to the year 1906, already mentioned, shows 

 that in the crofting counties seven-eighths of the agricultural holdings were 

 of an annual value not exceeding £30. Of the 162 parishes in these counties, 

 151 were declared to be crofting parishes. 



§ 3. Work of the crofters' commission. 



For the purpose of carrjdng out the provisions of the Act, there was 

 established the Crofters' Commission, a body of three Commissioners hav- 

 ing power to fix fair rents and to deal with arrears of rent in the case of 

 holdings to which the Act applied. Fair rents fixed by them might be revised 

 after an interval of seven years. They were also empowered to sanction 

 in certain circumstances the resumption of a crofter's holding by the land- 

 lord, and to fix the amount of compensation due to a crofter who renounced 

 or was removed from his holding ; and further, to compel land to be pro- 

 vided, on certain conditions, for the enlargement of crofters' holdings, 

 and to make regulations for the management of common grazings by local 

 committees, and for the exercise of other common rights such as the taking 

 of seaweed and peat. 



The Commission was in existence for 25 years, and dealt with over 21,000 

 applications for the fixing of a fair rent, including applications for revalua- 

 tion. The total area inspected by them in connection with these applica- 

 tions included 213,000 acres in individual occupancy, and 1,750,000 acres 

 occupied as common grazings. The " old" rents of the holdings dealt with 

 amounted to £89,500, and the fair rents fixed by the Commission to 

 £67,500, a reduction of nearly 25 per cent. The total amount of arrears 

 de?lt with was £ 186,000, of which two-thirds were cancelled. The amount 

 of arrears cancelled appears large, but as the Commissioners state in their 



