By an amending Act passed in 1911 a further sum of £36,000 cash, and 2-½ per cent. Consolidated Stock to the nominal value of £30,000, both taken out of the Fund of Suitors in the Supreme Court, were added to the Labourers' Cottages Fund.
The effect of the change made by the Act of 1906 has been to reduce the charge per £100 on the rates from £4 17s. 2d. (the lowest amount payable before that Act) to £2 1s. 7d. the amount payable now—a reduction of almost 57 per cent.
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, 12,821 additional cottages have been built, 5,057 are in course of erection, and others have been sanctioned or are awaiting sanction. The loans sanctioned under the Act amount to close on 4-¼ millions. This is the amount provided for by the Act of 1906. Another million on the same terms as the 4-¼ millions was provided by the amending Act of last year.
The average cost of each cottage built has been £175, and the average rent paid for a cottage with half an acre of land is 10d. per week, and for a cottage with an acre of land about 1s. per week.
The Labourers Act of 1906 included agricultural labourers in the class 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 resident on the estate or in the immediate neighbourhood thereof, but it provided that in no case should any advance be made to a labourer to purchase a parcel of land so long as he was in occupation of a tenancy under the Acts. The Act also empowered the Estates Commissioners to make advances to Rural District Councils, as trustees under Section 4 of the Irish Land Act, 1903, to purchase parcels of untenanted land for the purposes of the Labourers Acts.
The Labourers Acts and their administration have been, on the whole, extremely successful. No legislation passed during the last thirty years was more entirely needed, and none has been more beneficial to the country. The benefit is one which no one who travelled through Ireland thirty years ago, and who travels through it again to-day can fail to remark.
Where dilapidated hovels stood formerly, decent cottages stand to-day. A great deal still remains to be done, but what has been done has been, on the whole, well done. Up to the present there has been no inquiry ever asked for into the working of the Acts. That fact in itself shows that no serious dissatisfaction has been felt with their administration. However, from time to time complaints are heard which should be attended to; complaints as to the unsuitability of the people for whom cottages have been built; as to the size or workmanship of the cottages; as to a number of the cottages, remaining untenanted; and more often as to jobbery in respect of the sites chosen. Considering the amount of work done, it is surprising that the complaints have been so few. Nevertheless, it would be well that an inquiry should be held. It would tend to prevent any existing abuses from increasing.
Part IV. Compulsory Registration of Land in Ireland.
In the year 1865 a Record of Title Act was passed for Ireland. Its operation was confined to lands sold through the Landed Estates Court. About 680 titles were recorded under it. It failed, largely because it was not compulsory.