Where enlightened proprietors have done this, their wastes, he
says, became fertile, and agrarian outrages were unknown. Give, in a
word, the Irish peasant the same interest in reclaiming the waste at
home, that he gets in reclaiming the waste abroad, and the same
beneficial results will follow.
2. For the right working of this principle, the waste lands should be
resumed by the State. This he regarded as an indispensable preliminary.
Pay the proprietors fully for them, let the ground be valued as it is
valued for railways; paid for at its present, not its prospective value,
and let it be vested in Commissioners. Lots of convenient size should be
made, and sold, when reclaimed; but at no higher price than twenty-four
years' purchase. The State should also empower the Commissioner to sell
waste, in lots of not less than ten acres; ten acres to be the minimum
of reclaimed lots also. Existing proprietors should have the option of
reclaiming or selling; but in the former case security should be given
that the work would be immediately proceeded with.
Mr. Fagan would ask no pecuniary aid from the Government to carry out
his plan; he would meet the expenses of it by an agency tax, that is, a
tax upon house and land agencies, and upon all agencies.
Pages:
693
694
695
696
697
698
699
700
701
702
703
704
705
706
707
708
709
710
711
712
713
714
715
716
717