LORD LANSDOWNE'S QUEEN'S COUNTY ESTATE.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOR."] ..81a,—My attention has been called to a paragraph in the ,Spectator of January 5th, in which it is stated, with regard to some recent decisions of the Land Court on Lord Lansdowne's Queen's County Estate, that " in some instances he borrowed money from the State at 31 per cent., lending it to his tenants at 5 per cent.," and that " his agent admitted that the margin ought to be regarded as a sinking fund, by which the debt was
to be extinguished." • It appears to be suggested by the writer of the above passage that Lord Lansdowne has, since the date of the above loans, been paying to the State £3 108. per annum, and receiving from his tenants £5 per annum for every £100 borrowed from the Board of Works.
As agent to the Marquis of Lansdowne in the Queen's County and in the County Kerry, perhaps you will allow me to state that the facts of the case are these :—Upon every £100 -advanced by the State for building purposes, the landlord has been paying and will have to pay for 35 years £5 per annum, and upon every £100 advanced by the State for drainage pur- poses, the landlord has been paying and will have to pay for 22 years £6 10s. per annum, not receiving in the meanwhile from the tenant, in either case, more than £5 per annum, and in some instances not so much.
The manner in which the Government may dispose of the 5 ,per cent. or of the 61 per cent. which it gets from the landlord (whether it be in discharge of the principal or the interest), does .not affect the pocket of the landlord, so long as he has to pay it; and on the other hand, so long as the landlord has to pay it, he is clearly justified in charging a similar amount to the tenant, at whose request, and for whose benefit, the work has been done. It is, therefore, both unjust and misleading to allege that the
landlord borrows the money at 3k per cent. and lends it at 5 per cent., for, in point of fact, he actually pays 5 or 61 per cent. for the periods indicated, as the case may be ; and no one can pre- dict what rents the landlord may be able to obtain when those periods are expired.
And besides this, it must be remembered that the landlord has pledged his estate to the Government for the payment of the above-named annual instalments of 5 or 61 per cent., and must pay punctually, whether he gets it from the tenants or not ; whereas in many cases the landlord finds it impossible (owing to agitation, Arrears Act, and so forth) to recover from the tenant the interest which the tenant has undertaken to pay him. Time, I think, will show that the landlords of Ireland will not in future incur such risks as they have hitherto done by pledg- ing their estates to borrow money for their tenants' use and benefit.
Within the past twenty years, Lord Lansdowne and his predecessors have spent upon their Queen's County Estate £20,300, on buildings, improvements, and drainage, and upon more than half of this large sum the landlord has charged no interest whatever. The interest at 5 per cent. upon £20,300 would be £1,015 per annum, but as a matter of fact, the entire interest which Lord Lansdowne has charged upon this outlay is £300 per annum, so that the landlord is actually out of pocket to the value of £715 per annum by the improvements made for the benefit of his estate and tenants.
The Commissioner, in delivering judgment umnthe compara- tively small section of this estate that came beforAim, referred to the very large expenditure by the landlord, and used the following words :—" The amount of improvements on this estate have been really quite exceptional, I think only equalled by three other estates I have had to deal with since I occupied my present position, namely, those of Lord Fitzwilliam, Lord Digby, and Colonel King Harman."
With respect to the particular cases heard by the Land Com- mission (thirty in number), and representing a rental-of £994 per annum, out of a rental in the Queen's County of £7,666 per annum, the landlord's outlay upon these holdings during the past twenty years has been £2,106, and the entire interest that has been charged to the tenants upon that outlay is £39 per annum, being a fraction under 2 per cent.
While, no, doubt, the lands under consideration have been injuriously affected by the recent wet seasons, it is also the case that the rents adjudicated upon had been cheerfully paid for many years previous to Lord Lansdowne's accession to the estate.
Concerning Lord Lansdowne's Kerry estates, the Commis- sioner in delivering judgment at the recent Land Court at Kenmare said, " He found on this occasion, as on former occa- sions, little to complain of on his lordship's Kenmare estate, except in a few cases where middle interests had fallen in, and the middlemen's rents were allowed to remain unaltered. In most other cases the existing rents appeared fair, and the management of the estate considerate and kindly."—I am, Sir, [We quoted the very words of the Sub-Commissioner's judgment. Mr. Trench does not appear to touch the main point. Was the 5 per cent. charged to the tenants admitted to be both for interest and for sinking fund at the time it was charged to the tenants, or was it charged simply as interest ; and was the admission that it ought also to be regarded as a sinking fund by those who paid it, Bret made when the case came before the Court P —En. Spectator.]
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