holdings at a
price of L1,623,526, representing an average of 20-8 years' purchase,
and negotiations were in progress for the purchase by the Congested
Districts Board of estates worth another 11/2 millions. Total, a little
over 3 millions--a substantial amount of business in view of the
artificial acceleration caused by events in 1907 and 1908, the
subsequent reaction, and the enormous arrears of business still
remaining to be cleared up.

We should naturally expect a slight check to purchase under the Act of
1909, since the inducement both to landlord and tenant is less. The
tenant would be inclined to hold out for a lower price because his
annuity is higher (though signs of this check are not yet apparent), and
the landlord is paid in a stock whose market price seems to be slowly
but steadily falling. It is now (November, 1911) at 861/4. On the other
hand, the wise change in the allocation of the bonus places a
much-needed premium on sales of poor land at low prices, and reverses
the process by which a wealthy landlord of good land sometimes obtained
the largest reward for submission to sale.[161] Moreover, there is
constant pressure towards purchase owing to the better financial
position of the purchasing tenant over the non-purchasing or judicial
tenant, while the fear in the landlord's mind of further periodical
reductions in the judicial rents tends to induce him to meet this
pressure halfway.

Still, there is a point beyond which such pressure might not be strong
enough to carry on voluntary Purchase, especially if the 3 per cent,
stock continued to fall. Wide powers of compulsion,[162] covering
considerably more than a third of Ireland, and including the poorest
areas, where purchase is most needed, already exist under the Act of
1909. Some think that general compulsion will be needed. Other
well-informed men count with confidence on completing all the necessary
part of the purchase of Irish land in from twelve to fifteen years under
the existing system. On the other hand, it is necessary to contemplate
the possible need for universal compulsion.

2. Cost of the working of Land Purchase, and security for the money
advanced. It is just as well to make these points perfectly clear, in
view of the legends which obtain circulation about the "giving" of
British money for the purchase of Irish land.

The cost of the Land Purchase machinery falls at present on the
taxpayers of the whole United Kingdom, including,