APPENDIX D 307 



fro between the Houses, and had passed the joint-com- 

 mittee and, finally, been declared an Act of Parliament in 

 March 1899, then the Folkething had won the battle. 

 A short comparison of the rival schemes will suffice : 

 The Government proposed that the agricultural 

 labourer should possess one-fifth of the value of the pro- 

 perty, but the Folkething insisted that the amount should 

 be reduced to one-tenth and won ! The Government 

 proposed that interest should be paid on the loan at the 

 rate of 3! per cent., but the Folkething would only accept 

 3 per cent. and they got it ! It was further added that 

 one-half of the loan is not to be repaid until the other 

 half, on which interest and repayment amounts to 4 per 

 cent, per annum, has been paid back in the course of 

 forty-seven years. Subsequently the remaining debt is 

 to be repaid in about sixty-five years, with interest of 

 3 J per cent, yearly, out of which 3 per cent, is to be 

 considered as interest, and no part-payment is demanded 

 during the first five years. The only concession of the 

 Folkething was to limit the yearly sum advanced to two 

 million kroner instead of four million kroner. But in 

 compensation the Folkething took care to make the con- 

 trol over the administration of the Bill less effective than 

 was first proposed, and the House also made the conditions 

 of transfer easier. 



The Act was to remain in force for five years, and 

 already during that time unfavourable results and evasions 

 of the Act appeared owing to the deficient composition 

 (query, faulty drafting) and the ineffectual control over the 

 expenditure of the moneys advanced. This was acknow- 

 ledged by our worthy legislators, who tried to strengthen 

 the control when the Bill was revised in 1 903-1 904. Thus 

 it was made a new condition of obtaining a State loan 

 that the borrower should not only prove that he had the 

 command of an amount corresponding to one-tenth of the 

 value of the property, but also that he was really the owner 

 of such a sum, and it was also made a condition that no 

 man could become the owner of a State-holding by pur- 



