The Gazette 1909-10

12

The Gazette of the Incorporated Law Society of Ireland.

[JUNE, 1909

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

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.