THE IRISH LAND BILL

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 15, 9 April 1903, Page 29

THE IRISH LAND BILL

Advantages and Perils of Peasant Proprietorship.

In view of the great importance of che tiu^v l'ish Land Bill the following remarks made by Antony MacDonnell at a dinner of the Waster Builders in Dublin a few 1 weeks ago will be of interest at the present time. After stating that the proposed measure would be cc nstructed with the object of laying the foundations of an agrarian peace in Ireland, Sir Antony went on to say '■ — ' But purposing their hopes were fulfilled, and that the Bill would settle the land question as between landlord and tenant in a way acceptable to reasonable and moderate men on both sides, the further question immediately presented itself — whether the prosperity of the tenantry ol Ireland would be thereby assured. This was a question which ho would ask them to consider seriousIv. Supposing that the land was transferred on a great scale from landlords to tenants — 'supposing that The Tenants Became the Owners of their holdings on reasonable terms, should they have seen the last of the Irish land difliculty ? The answer to that question entirely depends on the character of the tenure to bo conferred on the tenants by the coming Act. In this matter he spoke his individual opinion, and did not pretend to express the policy of the Government, but ho was free to say on his own account that if a fee-simple in holdings was, without qualification, conferred on the tenant — if the tenant, on redeeming his purchase annuity or on completing the payments under it should be free to mortgage, to sub-let, and to subdivide his holding — then his conviction was that the time was not far distant when the condition of the tenantry oi Ireland would be worse than it had ever been. He wished to impress upon his hearers and upon the country the tremendous importance of the issue which this raised. Its importance was present to the minds of Lord Dunraven's conference, which, in the 18th Article of its report, called attention to the matter without, howc\er, making any suggestion as to how it should be dealt with lie (Sir A. MacDonnell) had no faith in a peasant propiictarv unless protected from The Evils Incident to that System of land tenure. They had all read about the working of peasant proprietary systems in Europe, and he had himself wide experience of the aimlagoi>s system in India, and his experience had always been the panic, everywhere the gradual declension of the peasant proprietor from prosperity to ruin had been repeated The process was this — first , there was a period of prosperity; then followed indebtedness, small at first, but ever growing with the facilities which were readily afforded by the usurer , next came mort gapes, and then came sub-division ami sale to meet the mortgagees' claim , finally came the ciash, and the grandson of the tenant proprietor- became the sub-tenant of his former patnmony, while The Usurer Became the Rack Renting Landloid — a landlord of a far worse tyj c than any which Ireland had at present r i hat was the pi ocess with which ho was familiar, and being lainiliar with it, lie was natulally anxious th it it shoi'ld not be repeated in lieland. It might bo said th.it Ireland was not India, and that Irish peasants wei c able to take care ol themselv es, and needed, as he had heaid said, no grandmotherly legislation. He quoted from the "Times" newspaper of the sth Februaiy on the subject of the indebtedness of the peasant proprietors of Halv, and continuing, said the Irish Coveinment had now completed a careful inquiry into the conditions ol tenant purchasers under the Land Purchase Acts ; and the results of that in<:iury were, in his opinion, most important and most significant They bore stiong testimony to the material and moral benefits conferred on the' people by the svsteni of land puichase, and tlvv afioxled conclusive e\idence of th" advantages of the s\ stem m the present condition ol the agraimn pi obletn in Inland But at the same time thev furnished the clearest indications of the condit ions which the country might expect if safeguards were not tal en against The Evil Tendencies which had wrecked peasant pi opr iet( rs in ca cry other country To be loiewarned was to be forearmed, and he sincerely trusted that the (Joverument of the country would see the necc-sity of saving their future yeomen f i onr usury, and from themselves, and that this could be done without substantial diminution of the 1 ight s of peasant proprietorship he had not hmself the least doubt If the land question stood first in the list of Irish difficulties, the .sale of the produce 01 land must certainly he ranked in the second place If the prosperity of Ireland must always chiefly depend upon the security of its atri ieulture, they would not ha"\ c clone all that they were bound to do to ensure that prosperity if they ignored the question of distribution He a cnt tired to suirgfst that improved communication with Home and foreign markets and ( It ap tiansit would have to be provided, if the future of Irr^h agricultuie was to lie placed on a sound basi-* II something- was not clone for the Tiish fai mer in this direction he would be ousted by competition, but that something eventually would be done he had no doubt He had confidence- m the spirit of enterprise and fairness of their great lailwav management — a confidence tJiat thcv would do all which the en cu instances required to promote the jiros-

perity of the country and to remove so far as in thejn lay the impediments which obstructed it at present. He would like to express his personal belief that with the transfer of their holdings to the tenants their duty in regard to them must not stop, but must widen and increase. Jt would not, he believed, do for them to say to the people — "We have helped you to secure the ownership of your holdings. You must now shift for yourselves." For if this fair promising principle of land purchase was to bear fruit they expected that it must be attained with solicitude for many yeais to come. The people must look to the Covernment for consideration and advice, and the Government must ever feel as now, that in the prosperity of the people lies their best rewaid.'