TIIK AGRARIAN REFORM OF 1903. u>j 



to suppose. It also includes the truth that the 



cess of the peasant proprietors is not to 

 asc > some magical powers evoked by th< 



possession of property, but to the very sober i 

 that the purchaser pays every year some 25 

 per cent, less tl non-purchasing tenant. 



On the popular side, this factor is regarded 

 ntage of the land-purchase 

 poli :\Q true policy because it has 



1 the obligations of the tenants by 25 per 

 cent. But in any purely scientific consideration 

 of the subject precisely this which raises a 



doubt as to whether the creation of a peasant 



:iership is really answerable for the remarkable 

 resu ch are witnessed. 



On this account also the continuance of the 



tern of rent-fixing has become impossible. 

 There is not the slightest reason, in principle, 

 why the tenants on the Dillon estate should be- 

 come owners of their holdings by paying 20 per 



it less rent than their neighbours on the 

 property of Lord de Freyne, who refused to sell. 1 

 That also was the opinion of Lord de Freyne's 

 tenants, who asked for a reduction of rent to the 



Dillon estate of 93,000 acres gross, with 4,500 < 

 as purchased in 1899 by the Government (Congested 

 re-sell to the tenants. While the < 

 ch, as usual, preceded the apportionment of 

 the holdings, were being carried out, the tenants were employed 

 as hired labourers ; so that their condition contrasted with that 

 of t : : >ours, not only by reduced rents but by incomings 



. 



