Page:The Irish land acts; a short sketch of their history and development.djvu/34

24 Purchase of Land Acts, 1891 and 1896 (the "Balfour Acts").

The funds advanced to the Irish Land Commission for the purposes of land purchase having again become exhausted, Mr. Balfour, in 1891, introduced a new system, under which the landlord or vendor was paid in a specially created Guaranteed Land Stock (exchangeable for Consols at the option of the vendor), equal in nominal amount to the purchase money. This stock bears interest at the rate of two three-quarters per cent, per annum, and cannot be redeemed until the expiration of thirty years from the date of the passing of the Act of 1891. The dividends and sinking fund payments required for this stock are paid out of a "Land Purchase Account," established by the Land Commission (section 4), to which all moneys received on account of any purchase annuity for the discharge of an advance are paid. If this Land Purchase account is at any time insufficient to meet the dividends and sinking fund payments (owing, for instance, to default in the repayment of instalments), the deficiency is to be a charge on a "Guarantee Fund," established for the purposes of the Act (section 5). This fund consists of a cash portion and a contingent portion. The cash portion is mainly made up of the Irish Probate Duty (now Estate Duty) Grant and an Exchequer contribution, and the contingent portion consists of the Irish share of the local taxation (Customs and Excise) duties and certain local grants (section 6). Any deficiency in the Land Purchase Account is to be paid out of this Guarantee Fund. This financial expedient, of course, throws the securing of the repayment of the advances for land purchase on the ratepayers of the country, as any default will be recouped by deductions from the various payments and contributions in aid of rates that make up the Guarantee Fund. The amount of stock that would be issued for each county for purposes of Land Purchase was limited to twenty-five times the share of the county in the Guarantee Funds by the Act of 1891 (section 9). This limit having been reached in the case of County Wexford, it was provided that the limit be extended to fifty times the share of such county in the Guarantee Fund by Mr Wyndham's Purchase of Land (Ireland) Act, 1901 (1 Edward VII c. 3). By the Act of 1903 (section 46) the limit for each county was further raised to thirty times its share in the Guarantee Fund, which limit might be further raised to sixty times where the Treasury, on the certificate of the Lord Lieutenant, were of opinion that such increase in advances could be made without any risk of loss to the Exchequer.

Calculating on the basis of the financial rear 1913-1914, the Guarantee Fund for all counties of Ireland amounted to £2,870,473. The capitalised value of the Guarantee Fund on the thirty times basis is at present £86,114,190, but owing to increases beyond this thirty times limit which have been sanctioned by the Treasury in certain counties the present capitalised value of the Fund stands at £127,810,390.