S8 THE IRISH AGRARIAN PROBLEM. 



reduced to ;^5, 440,000, or by 20'8 per cent. 

 Thus more than half the surface of Ireland has 

 been subjected to a first term judicial rent/ 

 Moreover, many tenants who never went before 

 the courts have felt the benefit of their decisions ; 

 the possibility of applying for a reduction has 

 brought down the rents in corresponding pro- 

 portion.^ 



In i8g6, after expiry of the first fifteen years 

 term, the revision of the judicial rents began. 

 The result was that by March 31st, 1903, second 

 term judicial rents were fixed for 90,839 tenants. 

 The original rents, which had been reduced by 

 the first decisions from /"i, 859, 000 to ^1,512,000, 

 were now brought down to ^1,192,000. The 

 majority of the Irish tenants enjoy to-day, 

 directly or indirectly, fair rents for fifteen year 

 terms with the right of free sale of their interest. 



Even to-day however the following classes 

 are shut out from the benefits of this legis- 

 lation : — 



I. Tenants living on demesne lands, 

 occupiers of grazing farms of over /loo 

 rental and those of non-agricultural or 

 wholly urban districts.^ 



' [It must be remembered that of the 20 milUon acres in 

 Ireland, 5 millions are reckoned as water, waste land, bog, etc. 

 There are only about 15 millions of productive land. — TranslP\ 



^ By March 31st, 1903, the number of tenants whose rents 

 had been fixed for a first term had risen to 3435370. (Land 

 Commission Report, 1903.) 



^ Act of 1896, sections 5 and 6. 



