ON AGRICULTURE TO IRELAND 



effected and what the result is. Take the case of a first term rent 

 of £100. From this there has to be deducted anything from 20 to 

 40 per cent. If we take the lower figure and deduct 20 per cent, 

 from £100 we have a rental of £80 as the basis for calculating the 

 purchase price. The capital value of an annuity of £80, according 

 to the Act, is £2461, 10s. If we take the higher figure and deduct 

 40 per cent, from £100, we have a rental of £60 as the basis for 

 calculating the purchase price. The capital value of an annuity 

 of £60, according to the Act, is £1846, 3s. Id. Now, observe the 

 difference between the purchase price of a first term rent under 

 the 1885 Act and the purchase price of a similar rent under the 

 1903 Act. Under the earlier Act, the landlord might only have 

 received for a farm rented at £100, on which a first term judicial 



FABM STEADING AT PILTOWN 



rent had been fixed, £1700 or 17 years' purchase. Under the 

 1903 Act he gets, if this procedure be adopted, for a similar farm, 

 on which a similar judicial rent had been fixed, anything between 

 £1846, 3s. Id. and £2461, 10s., or from 18 to 24 years' purchase, 

 without taking into account the bonus of 12 per cent, which he 

 gets from the State. Now, a great factor in the arrangement is 

 the fact that it is cheaper for the tenant to buy at the highest 

 figure which the landlord can demand than not to buy at all, for 

 the instalments of principal and interest, even in that case, are 

 less than the rent. The result is, that the Irish landlord, in 

 consequence of this new method of fixing the price under the 

 1903 Act, is, without taking into account the bonus, getting more 

 for his land to-day than he could have got in the open market or 

 under any of the Land-Purchase Acts since 1885. 



