THE AGRARIAN REFORM OF 1903. 139 



and then applying to the Land Commission for 

 an advance. It is not desirable that individual 

 tenants should purchase separatel}^ ; on the other 

 hand an estate can under certain circumstances 

 be sold piecemeal, since the Land Commission 

 has the right to treat any part of an estate as an 

 ' estate,' and to make an advance on it. It may 

 also make an advance on untenanted land which 

 is in the landlord's own hands and which is 

 often the most valuable part of the property. 

 Without this provision it would be difficult to 

 get holdings for farmers who were outside the 

 Land Acts, as, for instance, evicted tenants, or 

 to enlarge petty holdings, two points on which 

 the Land Conference laid much stress. Where 

 the landlord and the tenant cannot agree on 

 a purchase price, then the Land Commission 

 is empowered to acquire the property, provided 

 that three -fourths of the tenants (counting both 

 by numbers and by value of holdings) have 

 undertaken to purchase from the Commission on 

 the terms approved by the latter. This provi- 

 sion makes it possible to carry out a sale even 



Ashbourne Act the tenant had to pay ;^64 a year for 49 years. 

 In order to pay ^^1,52^ under the Wyndham Act he pays 

 ;^4g IIS. 3d. for 68|- years. From the standpoint of the 

 tenant the latter proceeding is the cheaper, although it 

 becomes dearer by the prolonged hypothecation of the tenant's 

 credit. In the first case, his total yearly instalments amount 

 to ;^3,i36; in the other, to ;^3,733, without reckoning 

 compound interest. Cp. also Fottrell, "The Irish Land Act^^ 

 1903, Explained," p. 36. ^ 



