Purchase of Land (Ireland) Act 1891

JurisdictionUK Non-devolved
Citation1891 c. 48
Year1891


Purchase of Land (Ireland) Act, 1891.

(54 & 55 Vict.) CHAPTER 48.

An Act to provide further Funds for the Purchase of Land in Ireland, and to make permanent the Land Commission; and to provide for the Improvement of the Congested Districts in Ireland.

[5th August 1891]

Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

I Land Purchase and Land Commission .

PART I.

Land Purchase and Land Commission .

S-1 Advances by guaranteed land stock.

1 Advances by guaranteed land stock.

(1)1.—(1.) Every advance under the Land Purchase Acts as amended by this Act after the commencement of this Act, except as herein-after mentioned, shall be made by the issue of a sum of guaranteed land stock equal in nominal amount to the advance; such stock, as between vendor and purchaser of the holding purchased, shall be accepted by the vendor as equal in value to the nominal amount thereof.

(2) (2.) Such stock shall be a capital stock, consisting of annuities yielding dividends at the rate of two pounds fifteen shillings per cent per annum on the nominal amount of the capital, payable by equal half-yearly payments on the first days of July and January, and after thirty years from the commencement of this Act, and not before, shall be redeemable in accordance with sub-section two of section two of the National Debt Conversion Act, 1888 , as if it were stock redeemable under that section; and for the purpose of such redemption of any stock, at or before the expiration of the term of forty-nine years from the time of the issue of such stock a Sinking Fund shall be established by means of an annual sum at the rate of one per cent on the nominal amount of the capital, payable in equal half-yearly payments.

(3) (3.) The said dividends and payments to the Sinking Fund shall be paid out of the Land Purchase Account herein-after mentioned, and, if that is insufficient, shall, to the extent of the deficiency, be paid as a temporary advance out of the Consolidated Fund, and every such advance shall be repaid to the Consolidated Fund out of the Guarantee Fund as provided by this Act.

S-2 Payment by purchaser of Sinking Fund payments in guaranteed land stock.

2 Payment by purchaser of Sinking Fund payments in guaranteed land stock.

2. Where a person liable to pay a purchase annuity either—

a ) redeems the annuity or any part thereof; or
b ) pays on a gale day or within fourteen days thereafter the instalment due on that gale day

the payment of the redemption money, or, as the case may be, of one-fourth of the instalment, may be discharged by the prescribed transfer to the National Debt Commissioners of an equal nominal amount of guaranteed land stock, and such transfer may be made through the medium of a post office savings bank in the prescribed manner.

S-3 Power to issue two and a half per cent guaranteed land stock.

3 Power to issue two and a half per cent guaranteed land stock.

3. If at any time after guaranteed land stock to a nominal amount of not less than ten million pounds has been issued, the Treasury are of opinion, having regard to the average market price of the said stock for the period, not less than twelve months, then immediately preceding, that the market price of a like stock, but bearing dividends at the rate only of two pounds ten shillings per cent per annum on the nominal amount of the capital, would be one hundred pounds cash for an equal nominal amount of stock, they shall cause notice to be given that after the date specified in the notice the following provisions will apply, and the same shall apply accordingly; that is to say,—

a. ) The guaranteed land stock issued for advances under any agreement made subsequently to the said date shall yield dividends at the rate only of two pounds ten shillings per cent per annum on the nominal amount of the capital
b. ) The annual sinking fund payment on stock issued for such advances shall be at the rate of one pound two shillings per cent on the nominal amount of the capital
c. ) The county per-centage shall continue to be at the rate of five shillings per cent per annum on such advances
d. ) The purchase annuity for the repayment of any such advance shall be at the rate of three pounds seventeen shillings per cent instead of four pounds per cent per annum on the advance;
e. ) The provisions of this Act with respect to guaranteed land stock, and the dividends thereon, and the sinking fund payments for the same, shall apply to stock issued for such advances, with the substitution of the last-mentioned amount of dividends and sinking fund payments for those mentioned in such provisions.
S-4 Establishment of a Land Purchase Account.

4 Establishment of a Land Purchase Account.

(1)4.—(1.) The Land Commission shall establish a Land Purchase Account and under the prescribed rules carry thereto and apply as follows all moneys received on account of any purchase-annuity for the discharge of an advance.

(2) (2.) All sums so carried in respect of the current half-yearly instalments of the annuity shall be applied in the following order:—

(a. ) In paying the dividends and Sinking Fund payments on an amount of guaranteed land stock equal to the amount of the advance; and

(b. ) In paying to the Guarantee Fund an annual sum (in this Act referred to as the county per-centage) at the rate of five shillings for every hundred pounds of the advance; and the whole or any part of such per-centage not required for the purposes of the Guarantee Fund shall be paid out of that fund to the Local Taxation (Ireland) Account and applied towards the cost of providing labourers' cottages under the Labourers (Ireland) Acts, 1883 to 1886 , in the county in which is situate the holding charged with the annuity, on such terms and conditions and subject to such regulations as the Lord Lieutenant thinks expedient; save that, where it appears to him, on the representation of the Local Government Board, that the whole or any part of such per-centage cannot with advantage be so applied, he may order the same to be applied as if it were part of the share of the county in the Irish probate duty grant, and he may for the purposes of this section withhold or suspend the distribution of the whole or part of the said per-centage when paid to the Local Taxation (Ireland) Account.

(3) (3.) All sums carried to the account in respect of arrears of the purchase-annuity, whether paid by the proprietor of the holding, or from the guarantee deposit, or from the proceeds of the sale of a holding, or from any other source, shall be paid to the Guarantee Fund; provided that where a sum is applicable out of the guarantee deposit for the discharge or reduction of an irrecoverable debt, one half only of the amount so applicable shall be paid out of the guarantee deposit to the Land Purchase Account; and such one half shall be carried to the Land Purchase Account out of the guarantee deposit immediately on any sum due to the Land Commission in respect of an advance secured by a guarantee deposit having been declared an irrecoverable debt. Sums carried to the Guarantee Fund under this sub-section shall be applied in the same manner, subject to the provisions of this Act as to guarantee, and subject to the prescribed regulations, as the sums carried to the Land Purchase Account in respect of the current half-yearly instalments.

(4) (4.) All sums carried to the account in respect of the redemption of the purchase-annuity, whether received from the proprietor of the holding, or upon the sale of the holding, or from the guarantee deposit, and also (save as otherwise provided by or in pursuance of this Act) all other moneys carried to the Land Purchase Account, shall be paid to the Sinking Fund.

S-5 Establishment of Guarantee Fund.

5 Establishment of Guarantee Fund.

(1)5.—(1.) There shall be established a Guarantee Fund under the direction of the Treasury, consisting of a cash portion and a contingent portion, and in every financial year there shall be paid to the Fund—

(a ) in respect of the cash portion of the Fund—

(i.) the Irish probate duty grant; and

(ii.) a sum of forty thousand pounds, which shall in every financial year be paid out of the Consolidated Fund (in this Act referred to as the Exchequer contribution); and

(iii.) the county per-centage; and

(b ) in respect of the contingent portion of the Fund, if and when and to the extent required in pursuance of this Act,—the Irish share of the local taxation (customs and excise) duties and the following local grants, that is to say, grants—

(i.) for rates and contributions in lieu of rates on Government property in Ireland;

(ii.) for the expenses of the Commissioners of National Education in Ireland under the accounts headed ‘Model Schools’ and ‘National Schools’;

(iii.) in aid of the maintenance of children in industrial schools in Ireland;

(iv.)in aid of the salaries of schoolmasters and school-mistresses in workhouses in Ireland, of the salaries of medical officers of workhouses and of dispensaries in Ireland, and of the cost of medicines and medical and surgical appliances in Ireland, and of the salaries of officers appointed or constituted under the Public Health (Ireland) Act, 1878; and

(v.) in aid of the cost of maintenance of pauper lunatics in district asylums in Ireland;

and the several sums constituting the cash portion and the contingent portion respectively of the Guarantee Fund shall be applicable to the purposes of that Fund in the order specified in this section.

(2) (2.) The cash portion of the Guarantee Fund, so far as not required in any financial year for meeting charges on the Fund, shall, subject to the provisions of this Act with regard to the county per-centage, be applied as follows, that is to say,—

(a. ) The Irish probate duty grant...

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