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12
The Gazette of the Incorporated Law Society of Ireland.
[JUNE, 1909
3^ per cent., but at the outset this strikes one
as likely to interfere with sales. Surely no
tenant who contemplates purchasing to-day
will agree to pay a larger annual instalment
than his neighbour who purchased last year.
Great efforts I think should be made by the
Treasury before they alter the existing law
under which a tenant can buy at 3^ per cent.
But then from the landlord's point of view the
Bill contemplates giving rights to the Estates
Commissioners, in clause 14, which will enable
them to interfere in zone cases. What does
this mean ?
It opens up a vista of trouble and
delay. No landlord can possibly tell, if the
zones are to be questioned, what price or sum
he will ultimately get, for, judging by the delay
that takes place at present in a sale, if the
Government proposals become law, years after
a landlord has agreed to sell at certain zone
prices, the arrangement may be varied by the
Estates Commissioners, and the prices agreed
upon not given. This, of a certainty, is the
vice of the proposed amending Bill. Again,
take the question of bonus. Hitherto we all
know it has been at a uniform rate of
12
per
cent. Now, it is proposed to introduce a slid
ing scale. This cannot but prove detrimental
to sales, and will certainly not encourage
vendors. But there are other clauses in this
amending Bill to which I would direct your
attention for a moment. Take part 3, deal
ing with the congested districts. This is
practically a proposal to abolish the Congested
Districts Board, which we all know has proved
most efficient in the past, and with limited
resources has done very valuable work. I, for
one, will regret the day when I see this exist
ing Board dissolved and a new organization
put into its place. Certainly any change such
as is proposed in my judgment will not facili
tate the working of the peculiar duties which
have hitherto occupied the attention of the
gentlemen constituting the existing boards. I
do not know whether it is intended to press this
Bill on seriously, but I do think that we as a
profession have a right to express our opinion ;
and as one who has had some little experience
in selling Irish land, and in endeavouring in a
small way to assist the policy of creating
peasant proprietors throughout Ireland, I
cannot but feel that if the Bill in its present
form becomes law, it certainly will not facili
tate the objects which apparently its promoters
intend (hear, hear).
MR. C. A. STANUELL: There is a ques
tion in connexion with the Budget in reference
to land sales which I may mention here.
There are 600,000 tenant-farmers in Ireland—
there are more farmers in this country than in
England and Scotland put together. In future
all these transfers of land will have to be by
conveyance. In England and Scotland there
are leases, and the stamp duty is not interfered
with by leases, but as regards land purchase
there will be serious disturbance. There is also
another and a very serious question for the
tenant-farmers in regard to the death duties.
I do not suppose anybody outside the ranks of
the legal profession knows that personal estate
and real estate pay different duties. Real estate
duty is paid by instalments, but personal
estate duty is paid in a lump sum at the com
mencement of obtaining probate. All land
which is sold through the Estates Commis
sioners is by that statute considered to be
personal estate. The consequence is that
when the bread-winner dies, before probate is
taken out, the duty will be assessed in a bulk
sum upon the value of his estate before his
family have any means of raising the money.
That would be very hard on them just at a time
when the family resources are tied up as a
result of the absence of probate, I do not
think this question has been considered by
the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
THE PRESIDENT : I am sure we are very
much obliged to Mr. Fry for his address to us
and for the care with which he must have gone
into those provisions of the Land Bill. We
are all indebted to Mr. Stanuell, too, for his
remarks with regard to the Budget (hear,
hear).
County Court Procedure.
MR. GERALD BYRNE : Before you close
our proceedings, I would wish to draw atten
tion to one matter. It is with reference to the
action of this Council and the action of the
Solicitors in Green Street as to County Court
procedure. It has got into the Press, through
the letters that were written, that the Bills
which were brought forward to amend the
procedure in Green Street were opposed by the
Council here and by the Solicitors up there.
That has not been the case, and I wish em
phatically to give that a contradiction. As far
as Green Street was concerned, we always
tried to get these Bills through, and this
Council unanimously passed resolutions at the
suggestion of the Green Street Sessions Bar
that these Bills should pass. That was done,
and it is very unfair for gentlemen to write to
the Press, making statements that their non-
passing was due to our opposition. That is