THE AGRARIAN REFORM OF 1903. 145 



The Wyndham Act makes special provision for 

 the solution of the problem of the enlargement of 

 petty holdings. Where these holdings are merely 

 converted into peasant proprietorships, the posi- 

 tion of the occupier would be scarcely improved. 



Hitherto the Congested Districts Board has 

 occupied itself with the enlargement of holdings 

 by the purchase of estates (containing untenanted 

 as well as tenanted land) and their resale to the 

 tenants. In future it can pursue this work more 

 actively, since the Land Commission is to finance 

 it. The Board however is confined to certain 

 districts, even though similar conditions may pre- 

 vail outside them. Here the Land Commission 

 may come in. It may purchase " congested 

 estates" and resell them to the tenants, even 

 at a loss. Congested estates are defined to 

 be those at least half of which is taken up by 

 holdings of j£s valuation or under, or which 

 consists half of mountain or bog, or where |- or 

 more is held in rundale. 



The Land Commission may sell these estates 

 to the tenants at a loss, but the total loss, taking 

 into account both the cost price and the expenses 

 of improvements, must not exceed 10 per cent, of 

 the sales carried out in that year. 



bodies, too, have invested much of their funds in mortgages. 

 The Protestant Church of Ireland, for example, is at the 

 present moment collecting a fund of ;^25o,ooo simply to 

 cover the worst of the loss that may arise through repayment 

 of mortgages. For the man of small savings, the fall in the 

 rate of interest is a very serious matter. 



L 



