98 THE IRISH AGRARIAN PROBLEM. 



to form a fund for erecting labourers' cottages. 

 The landlord was henceforth to be paid not in 

 cash but in scrip, which ranked with Consols, 

 and was called ' land stock.' 



So complicated was this Act that for many 

 causes, some of them being of a political nature, 

 it was not a success.^ It was amended in the 

 Act of 1896. According to this the landlord, as 

 before, was paid in scrip. The instalments 

 amounted to 4 per cent. ; 2f interest, and i|- 

 sinking fund ; the term for paying off the debt 

 being shortened to forty-two 3^ears. Every ten 

 years however there was a reduction in the in- 

 stalments, the sum already paid being withdrawn 

 from the capital and the 4 per cent, for the next 

 ten years being only payable on the reduced 

 capital. This was the so-called "decadal re- 

 duction " which it must be added had the effect 

 of prolonging the period of the repayment from 

 forty-two to seventy years. ^ 



The results of all this legislation up to March 

 31, 1902, are shown in the following table : — 



Under the Ashbourne Act — 



No. of Loans. Amount of Loans. Acreage sold. Years' Purchase. 



25.367 ;^^9>993>ooo 943>ooo ly? 



Acts of 1891 and 1896 — 



36,994 10,809,000 1,185,000 T7'5 



62,362 ;^2o,8o2,ooo 2,028,000^ 



^ Fottrell, "The Irish Land Act of 1903 Explained," pp. 4-6. 



^ Fottrell, pp. 7, 8. 



^ Land Commission Report, p. 116. The figures refer to 

 loans issued, that is, advances actually made. In 1903 the 

 number of purchasers under the Acts of 1891 and 1896 had 

 risen to 42,436, and the amount of the loans to ^Z, 12,366,000. 



