THE AGRARIAN REFORM OF 1903. 119 



to suppose. It also includes the truth that the 

 success of the peasant proprietors is not to be 

 ascribed to some magical powers evoked by the 

 possession of property, but to the very sober fact 

 that the purchaser pays every year some 25 

 per cent, less than the non-purchasing tenant. 

 On the popular side, this factor is regarded 

 as the grand advantage of the land-purchase 

 policy : it is the true policy because it has 

 reduced the obligations of the tenants by 25 per 

 cent. But in any purely scientific consideration 

 of the subject it is precisely this which raises a 

 doubt as to whether the creation of a peasant 

 ownership is really answerable for the remarkable 

 results which are witnessed. 



On this account also the continuance of the 

 system 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 

 cent, less rent than their neighbours on the 

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

 That also was the opinion of Lord de Freyne's 

 tenants, who asked for a reduction of rent to the 



^ The Dillon estate of 93,000 acres gross, with 4,500 cottier 

 tenants, was purchased in 1899 by the Government (Congested 

 Districts Board) to re-sell to the tenants. While the extensive 

 improvements which, 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 their neighbours, not only by reduced rents but by incomings 

 of hard cash. 



