THE IRISH LAND PURCHASE ACT OF 1903 911 



More serious still is the fact that a large body of occupiers 

 will not be able to take full advantage of the new facilities. 

 Non-judicial tenants and those with very large holdings will ask 

 for some aid towards purchasing, and here the hostility of the 

 Nationalist party to the holders of large pastoral farms " cattle- 

 ranches," as they are called by imitation from America will prove 

 an obstacle. The Congested Districts Board may buy in and re- 

 allot such land ; but this course will not tend to the economic advan- 

 tage of Ireland, where different types of farming are required, 

 and where the large farmer is the pioneer of improvements. 



The greatest difficulty that the new measure will have to 

 encounter is the possible disinclination of landlords to sell, ex- 

 cept at prices much above those which have been established 

 under the Ashbourne Act and its successors. The idea is very 

 prevalent among the tenants that seventeen to eighteen years' 

 purchase of the existing rents is an adequate price ; and, looking 

 at the average price of purchase for all Ireland, it has a prima 

 facie plausibility. But the variations from the average are very 

 wide, and differ much in different counties. Thus the extreme 

 differences run from 45.7 years to 6.2 years, which shows the 

 extraordinary inequalities that exist. Two circumstances have to 

 be taken into account, moreover, in considering the low prices 

 hitherto established : (1) The insecurity of the landowners' 

 position. Seventeen years' purchase meant capitalizing at almost 

 6 per cent, at a time when interest was slightly over 2\ per cent. 

 Sales at such a sacrifice could not continue with more settled 

 political conditions. (2) Moreover, the sellers under the earlier 

 purchase acts either were hopelessly encumbered or were large 

 proprietors, who desired to get rid of their troublesome Irish 

 estates. The London companies were specially anxious to rescue 

 their property, even at a loss. These two classes are now practi- 

 cally exhausted, and further sales are only possible at higher 

 prices. The critical matter is to determine at what point this 

 new level will be placed. The probability is that at first the 

 variations will be wide, running from the minimum eighteen and 

 a half years (excluding bonus) to twenty-five or twenty-six years. 

 As the work of transfer goes on, the average price will tend to 



