Page:The Irish land acts; a short sketch of their history and development.djvu/51

39 Congested Districts Board, in 1891, was the first attempt made by legislative enactment to discriminate between the impoverished occupiers of Irish land and those who had holdings capable of affording a means of livelihood.

The term "congestion" has become generic in Ireland. It has acquired a special meaning as applied to quasi agricultural population living on holdings insufficient to support a family. The definition of a congested district given in the Act of 1891 is a district in which more than twenty per cent. of the people live in electoral divisions of which the total rateable value, when divided by the number of the population, gives a sum of less than thirty shillings for each person. 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. That part of the country has come to be considered as the true region of congestion, or agricultural poverty, and undoubtedly there it is most pronounced and most obtrusive. It would, however, be a mistake to assume that the same problem does not arise in other parts of Ireland—even in the Province of Leinster—in an acute form.

Statutes dealing with Congestion.—Act of 1891.—Act of 1893.—Act of 1894.—Act of 1896.—Act of 1899.—Act of 1901.—Act of 1903.

It is not necessary to describe in detail the various statutes that deal with congestion in Ireland. The Congested Districts Board was founded under the authority of section 34 of the Purchase of Land (Ireland) Act, 1891, to continue for twenty years, "and thereafter until Parliament shall otherwise determine." It was given power (section 39) to aid migration and emigration within a Congested Districts County, to sell suitable seed potatoes and seed oats to occupiers, to aid and develop agriculture, forestry, the breeding of live stock and poultry, weaving, spinning, fishing (including the construction of piers and harbours, the supply of fishing boats and gear, and industries connected with fishing), and any other suitable industries. Powers were also given for the enlargement of holdings, whether subject to purchase annuities or to rents to private owners, but these powers were so circumscribed and guarded as to be unworkable. 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