The Large Fields Were
Waving With A Fine Crop; There Were Some Grand Fields Of Wheat, The
Stack Yard Had Many Stacks Of Last Year's Grain And Hay.
This man had
given his son lately L2500 to settle himself on a farm.
It certainly
would not be poverty that prevented him paying his rent, for there was
every evidence of wealth around him. I heard of men, who, having paid
their rent, could not get their horses shod at the blacksmith's shop.
For breaking the rules of the Land League they were set apart from their
fellows.
I can well imagine that serious embarrassments must arise to landlords
when their rents, their only income, are kept back from them. How I
would rejoice to know that landlord and tenant were reconciled once
more, that lordship and leadership were united in one person.
Sir Thomas Butler informed me that, "when a landlord dies and his son
succeeds him the Government do not charge him succession duty on his
rental but on Griffith's (or the Poor Law) valuation of his estate, plus
30 per cent. If his estate is rented at only 10 per cent over the
valuation, he has to pay Government all the same, and is consequently
over charged 20 per cent because in the opinion of the Government
authorities, the fair letting value of land is from 25 to 30 per cent
over Griffiths valuation, and they charge accordingly." (I suppose it is
founded upon this law of succession duty that when a tenant dies the
widow has the rent raised upon her.) "Under the Bright clauses of the
Land Act of 1870 the Government is authorized to advance to the tenant
two-thirds of the purchase money for his holding. At first the Treasury
fixed 24 years' purchase of the valuation as the scale they would adopt,
and under that they lent 16 years' purchase to the tenant, who at once
remonstrated that their interest was a great deal more. After numerous
enquiries, &c., the treasury changed the 24 years into 30 years, and
consequently let the tenants 20 years value of their valuation, they
finding the other ten years, clearly showing that in the opinion of the
tenants themselves and the Government land was worth 30 years' purchase
of its valuation. What is the proposal now by the tenants and agitators?
That they should clearly only pay at the rate of Griffith's valuation,
which, a few years ago, they themselves asserted was fifty percent below
the selling value, and which valuation was taken when wheat, oats,
barley, butter, beef, mutton and pork were much below the present value.
Landlords have not raised their rents in proportion. My own estate in
1843 had 116 tenants, in 1880 it had 105 tenants on 5,760 statute acres.
The difference in the rent paid in 1880 over that paid in 1843 is L270,
barely six percent on the whole rental, which is almost 16 percent over
valuation. Over L2,000 was forgiven in the bad years after potato
famine, and over L1,000 has been lost by nonpaying tenants, and a
considerable sum has been expended in improvements without charging the
tenant interest; in some cases the cost has been divided between
landlord and tenant.
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