Home Rule Part 23

APPENDIX G

THE LAND LAW (IRELAND) ACT, 1881

The provisions which have revolutionised the land system of Ireland are contained in Clause 8 of the Land Act of 1881, which runs as follows:--

8.--(1.) The tenant of any present tenancy to which this Act applies, or such tenant and the landlord jointly, or the landlord, after having demanded from such tenant an increase of rent which the tenant has declined to accept, or after the parties have otherwise failed to come to an agreement, may from time to time during the continuance of such tenancy apply to the court to fix the fair rent to be paid by such tenant to the landlord for the holding, and thereupon the court, after hearing the parties, and having regard to the interest of the landlord and tenant respectively, and considering all the circ.u.mstances of the case, holding, and district, may determine what is such fair rent.

(2.) The rent fixed by the court (in this Act referred to as the judicial rent) shall be deemed to be the rent payable by the tenant as from the period commencing at the rent day next succeeding the decision of the court.

(3.) Where the judicial rent of any present tenancy has been fixed by the court, then, until the expiration of a term of fifteen years from the rent day next succeeding the day on which the determination of the court has been given (in this Act referred to as a statutory term), such present tenancy shall (if it so long continue to subsist) be deemed to be a tenancy subject to statutory conditions, and having the same incidents as a tenancy subject to statutory conditions consequent on an increase of rent by a landlord.

APPENDIX H

THE IRISH CONGESTED DISTRICTS BOARD

The present Congested Districts Board, so often referred to in the text, is const.i.tuted under the following clauses of the Irish Land Act of 1909:--

45.--(1.) From and after the appointed day, the Congested Districts Board shall consist of the following members:--

(a.) The Chief Secretary, the Under Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant, and the Vice-President of the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland, who shall be ex officio members:

(b.) Nine members appointed by His Majesty (in this Act referred to as appointed members):

(c.) Two paid members appointed by His Majesty (in this Act referred to as permanent members).

(2.) An appointed member shall hold office for five years, and shall be eligible for re-appointment. On a casual vacancy occurring by reason of the death, resignation, or incapacity of an appointed member or otherwise, the person appointed by His Majesty to fill the vacancy shall continue in office until the member in whose place he was appointed would have retired, and shall then retire.

46.--(1.) For the purposes of the Congested Districts Board (Ireland) Acts, as amended by this Act, each of the following administrative counties, that is to say, the counties of Donegal, Sligo, Leitrim, Roscommon, Mayo, Galway, and Kerry, shall be a congested districts county, the six rural districts of Ballyvaghan, Ennistymon, Kilrush, Scariff, Tulla, and Killadysert, in the county of Clare, shall together form one congested districts county, and the four rural districts of Bantry, Castletown, Schull, and Skibbereen, in the county of Cork, shall together form one congested districts county.

(2.) No electoral division shall, after the pa.s.sing of this Act, be or form part of a congested districts county, unless it is included in a congested districts county const.i.tuted under this section.

The Act follows closely on the lines of the Report of the 1908 Commission, and places a third of Ireland under the Board.

APPENDIX J

(1.) RECOMMENDATION IN REGARD TO IRELAND OF THE ROYAL COMMISSION ON Ca.n.a.lS AND INLAND NAVIGATION

(1.) That such waterways in Ireland as, on a review of all the facts, your Majesty's Government may deem of importance to the cause of cheap inland transport, should come under State control; and

(2.) That a Controlling Authority should be const.i.tuted for the purpose of taking over those inland waterways which are already under the control of the State, of Local Authorities, or of a public trust, and of acquiring such other waterways as are determined to be of importance either to the drainage of the country, or to the cause of cheap inland transport.

(2.) IN REGARD TO IRISH RAILWAYS

The princ.i.p.al recommendation of the Majority Report of the Viceregal Commission on Irish Railways (1910) runs as follows:--

(1.) That an Irish Authority be inst.i.tuted to acquire the Irish Railways and work them as a single system.

(2.) That this Authority be a Railway Board of twenty Directors, four nominated and sixteen elected.

(3.) That the general terms of purchase be those prescribed by the Regulation of Railways Act of 1844 (7 and 8 Vic. cap. 85.

sec. 2), with supplementary provisions as to redemption of guarantees, and purchase of non-dividend paying or non-profit earning lines.

(4.) That the financial medium be a Railway Stock; and that such stock be charged upon (1) the Consolidated Fund; (2) the net revenues of the unified Railway system; (3) an annual grant from the Imperial Exchequer; and (4) a general rate, to be struck by the Irish Railway Authority if and when required.