NO DEPOSIT 35 



lected holding. This would tend to depreciate 

 the annual value, and reduce the margin for 

 the sinking fund ; but where no deposit is in- 

 sisted upon the farmer is left with his working 

 capital intact, which he can confidently employ 

 to the very best advantage. Under these cir- 

 cumstances a serious falling-off in the annual 

 value of his holding through bad husbandry 

 is an unlikely and improbable contingency.* 



From the point of view of the tenant-farmer 

 the scheme is an admirable one. Security 



* The history of the deposit in regai'd to land purchase 

 in Ireland is interesting and instructive. Under the Land 

 Act of 1870 a tenant wishing to purchase from a willing 

 landlord could obtain a sum not exceeding two-thirds of the 

 price of his holding. Under the Act of 1881 this amount 

 was increased to a sum not exceeding three-fourths of the 

 purchase money. The Purchase of Land Act of 1885 

 demanded a guarantee deposit of not less than one-fifth. 

 The Land Law (Ireland) Act of 1896 dispensed with the 

 guarantee deposits, but provided for the reduction of the 

 purchase annuity every tenth year for thirty years, the 

 period of repayment of the loan being seventy-three years. 

 And finally the Irish Land Act of 1903 abolished this 

 " decadal " reduction. Under this Act advances are 

 repayable by an annuity lasting for sixty-eight and one- 

 half years at '.i\ per cent., of which 2| per cent, is interest 

 and \ per cent, sinking fund. "An Outline of the Law 

 of Landlord and Tenant and of Land Purchase in Ireland," 

 T, Henry Maxwell. 



