Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 February 1913 — IRISH LAND REFORMS [ARTICLE]

IRISH LAND REFORMS

Congested Districts Board Has Been Doing Good Work. Face of Country Is Now Changed— Tenants Given Enlarged Holdings and Better Dwellings!—Clanrlcarde Still Stubborn. Dublin.—The process of redeeming the “agricultural slums" of the west and south of Ireland goes on apace. When the land act of 1903 was passing through the house of commons the ehief secretary, Mr. Wyndham, pleaded for a free haad-to redeem these “rotten and rigid communities,” as he called them. He got all the powers he asked for, but they proved of little avail. As soon as the act was passed the well-to-do farmers rushed in with purchase agreements and the tenants on the congested estates were forgotten. It was not till the amending land act was passed in 1909 that any big effort could be made to deal with this problem. The amending act increased the funds and the powers of the congested districts board and the board has been going ahead with schemes at a great rate since. In its report for the year 1912 the board states that it has purchased some of the poorest estates on the western seaboard In the counties of Donegal, Mayo, Galway, Clare, Kerry and West Cork and are going on with schemes for the improvement or enlargement of the holdings and dwellings. The officers have been so busy inspecting lands for the purpose of purchase and resale to the tenants as economic holdings that the actual transfer to the tenantß is not being effected as rapidly as could be desired. At present Borne 20,000 tenants are paying rent to the hoard, pending the Improvement and resale of the holdings, the annual rental being between $700,000 and SBOO,OOO. There are still about 2,000,000 acres of unsold land in the congested districts, the purchase price of which is estimated at $80,000,00(X The board is trying to get possession of all this land as fast as it cafi. As a rule it has not found it necessary to put Its powers of compulsion into force, but in the case of the estates of the marquis of Clanricarde It is being foight every inch of the way. Some of the fiercest struggles of the land war took place on these estates in County Galway and the representatives of the dispossessed tenants are now waiting to have the lands taken from the landlord and restored to them. 'The landlord would not listen to offers of purchase by the board. The board has set the law in motion

to acquire the lands compulsorily and the first steps in the courts have been taken already. The marquis of Clanricarde is now seeking an injunction £o restrain the estates commissioners and the board from taking the lands compulsorily, and even if he is defeated in these proceedings he can cause further delay by 'taking the case to the court of appeal. It was his unwillingness to listen to any proposals for the restoration of the evicted tenants on his estates that Induced parliament to grant compulsory powers to the congested districts board. It' will be a queer anomaly, therefore, if he succeeds in preventing this old/ sore of the land war from being healed. The board stateß that it is quite impossible to conjecture when a final decision may be obtained in the case. The holdings along the western seashore are very small and of very poor land and the conditions under which the occupiers and their families live are appalling. The dwelling houses are in many cases mere insanitary

huts unfit for pigs. It Is here that the work of the board has been, most beneficial. Wherever the members have been able to acquire untenanted land alongside qn estate of that kind they have been able to lift the people out of their wretchedness and poverty. The farms are rearranged and new houses built and the farmers and their families are given Instruction on the management of the new farms. In some districts, particularly those situated inland, where grazing land was available in large tracts for purchase and addition to the tenants’ holdings, the whole face of the country has been changed by the operations of the board. ~ Well kept and well cultivated farms are to be seen Instead of the wretched holdings of the past, and neat, clean houses replace the mud hovels in which th.e people used to live. The congested districts hoard also assists In developing cottage Industries and sea fisheries, but Its chief work Is land settlement, in which it has been very successful.