William Frederick Bailey

“ Confusion of Treatment of Occupiers of Economic and Uneconomic Holdings.
The importance of the view that I here put forward lies mainly in the fact that until the passing of the Act of 1891, under which the Congested Districts Board was created, no attempt was made to distinguish between the two classes of occupiers of Irish land. The occupiers of economic and uneconomic farms were subject to the same laws, and were treated in the same manner. No attempt was ever made to distinguish between the man who could make his rent out of his land and the man who could not. ”

“ The other class lives on and partly out of the land, but land of a character, quantity or situation that will not support a family at a proper standard of living without extraneous help. In the case of the first class, the fairness of the rent is the most important consideration; in the case of the second, the land and rent are often minor elements in the struggle for existence. ”

“ Consequently, the rent paid for such land is not true agricultural rent. It is more of the nature of house rent paid by workingmen in towns, who, out of the wages that they earn in their various employments, spend certain portions in food, clothing, and shelter. But the Irish peasant, who tries to support his family on an insufficient farm, has not the advantage of having a demand for his labour at hand. ”

“ This definition is purely arbitrary, and, as a fact, includes regions through which one may drive for miles without seeing a human habitation, and excludes districts in which the people are crowded together on totally insufficient holdings. The problem is not so much one of locality as of the condition of the people. Owing to the various historical reasons, an excessive population, having regard to the means of subsistence, is to be found on the large area of bad land that extends along the western seaboard of Ireland from Cork to Donegal. ”

“ He is neither in the position of the farmer nor of the labourer. He is the occupier of a piece of land on which he builds his cabin, and pays a rent which is supposed to be agricultural, but which is really not earnable out of the land, but out of whatever other supplementary income he is able to obtain by migratory labour or by contributions from outside sources. The Irish Fair Rents Acts are supposed to deal only with agricultural holdings. ”

“ No distinction was drawn between impoverished and uneconomic occupiers, and those who were able to make a living and pay a rent out of their holdings. It was, indeed, recognised that the smaller tenants had a special claim to protection, and in the Compensation for Disturbance Clause of the Act of 1870 (section 3) the tenant of a holding valued at £10 and under might be awarded a sum not exceeding seven years' rent, while a tenant above £100 valuation could in no case get more than one year's rent. ”

“ The Board was given an income to commence with of £4l,250 a year. In 1893 an Act was passed (56 & 57 Vic., c. 35) which gave the Board power to acquire land and to hold it as landlords for the enlargement of holdings and for the purposes of the Land Purchase Acts. In 1894 another Act was passed, which enabled the Board to give a guarantee to the Land Commission on selling to a tenant purchaser within such limits as the Treasury might fix, for the repayment of the annuity. ”

“ It was, however, gradually borne in on Statesmen dealing with Ireland that something besides the "three F's" was necessary if the periodical famines and endemic misery of the poorer occupiers of the West of Ireland were to be grappled with. ”