Page:The Irish land acts; a short sketch of their history and development.djvu/57

43 were payable, and at the passing of the Act of 1906 they were as follows:—

The Act of 1906 enabled the Rural Districts Councils to obtain advances for the purposes of the Labourers Acts up to 4¼ millions from the Land Commission out of the Irish Land Purchase Fund, and provided that such advances were to be repayable in like manner as the advances under the Irish Land Act of 1903, that is to say, by annuities at 3¼ per cent. (covering both principal and interest), and payable for 68½ years. This annuity rate has been continued in the case of advances for the purposes of the Labourers Acts by the Irish Land Act, 1909, which Act increased the annuity rate to 3½ per cent. in respect of all advances for lands purchased under the Land Purchase Acts since 15th September, 1909.

It will thus be seen that the terms of repayment for loans under the Labourers Acts were made much easier by the Act of 1906 than they were under the previous Labourers Acts. The Act of 1906 further provided that only 64 per cent. of the charge was to be borne by the local rates; the remaining 36 per cent. being defrayed, as to 16 per cent. out of the Labourers' Cottages Fund established by the Act, and 20 per cent. out of the Irish Development Grant. The Act placed at the disposal of the Local Government Board for the purposes of the Labourers' Cottages Fund, capital sums amounting to £157,000, and annual sums coming to £15,000.

Under the Acts of 1883 to 1896, 22,588 cottages were built, and the loans sanctioned amounted to £3,600,000. Under the Act of 1906, 11,772 additional cottages have been built; 5,172 are in course of erection, and others have been sanctioned, or are awaiting sanction, and the loans sanctioned under the Act amount to close on 4¼ millions. This is the amount provided for by the Act of 1906, and the Act of 1911 provided for another million on the same terms as the 4¼ millions.

The Labourers Act of 1906 included agricultural labourers in the classes of persons to whom a parcel of untenanted land might be allotted by the Estates Commissioners, where the agricultural labourer had for a period not less than five years immediately preceding been residing on the estate or in the immediate neighbourhood thereof, and provided that any pre-existing tenancy under the Labourers Acts in his case was determined before the advance was made to him to purchase the parcel of land. The Act also empowered the Estates Commissioners to make advances to Rural District Councils to purchase,