THE IRISH LAND PURCHASE ACT OF 1903 907 



Passing from the methods of purchase, we come to the special 

 machinery created by the act. This is the Estates Commission, 

 composed of three members, administrative, not judicial, in char- 

 acter. The importance of thus bringing the commissioners under 

 the control of the Executive and making their system of working 

 more elastic can hardly be overestimated. The extent to which 

 judicial stringency has retarded the working of the purchase 

 system is difficult to realize. It may be expected that the new 

 commissioners, carefully selected for their competence, will apply 

 sound business methods in their department. 



The extraordinary delays in examining the titles of the proper- 

 ties for sale will not be likely to recur in the future, especially 

 as anyone in receipt of the rents for six years can practically be 

 treated as the owner for the purpose of selling, though not en- 

 titled to receive the purchase-money without the adequate proof. 



The powers of the Estates Commissioners are sufficiently ex- 

 tensive to enable them to improve the property passing through 

 their hands. Sporting rights, rights to minerals, etc., may become 

 vested in them ; and there can be little doubt that they will use 

 their powers. The real danger is rather that of a too paternal 

 system being developed by the action of the various State depart- 

 ments engaged in fostering the Irish peasants, with evil results 

 in checking the growth of a spirit of independence and individual 

 activity in economic matters. 



An elaborate system of transfer, such as that just sketched, 

 needs as its basis a carefully organized financial provision ; and 

 it is here that the special interest of the British tax-payer comes 

 in. The course of development in this part of Irish land legisla- 

 tion has been a gradual increase in the assistance given by the 

 State to the process of purchase. Beginning with the advance of 

 a portion of the price to aid the thrifty buyer, it has gradually 

 changed into the payment of the whole purchase-money by the 

 State to the seller, the tenant-buyer paying off principal and in- 

 terest by instalments. The act of 1903 puts the system on a 

 revised basis. The chief points in this remodelled plan are : 

 (i) The payment of the price in money, the amount being deter- 

 mined by the annuity which the purchaser is to pay. (2) The 



