The Irish Land Acts/Miscellaneous
SECTION XVIII.
Miscellaneous.
Preservation of Ancient Monuments.
Up to the year 1903, Ancient Monuments did not come within the purview of the Irish Land Commission. The Ancient Monuments Protection Act of 1882 empowered the owners of certain specified Ancient Monuments, and of others of a like character, to place them by deed under the guardianship of the Board of Works. An amending Act in 1892 extended the scope of this statute and enabled the Board of Works to expend money on the repair of such monuments when necessary; while Section 19 of the Local Government Act of 1898 permitted the County Councils to assume such guardianship also, and to prosecute for penalties under Section 6 of the Act of 1892, when ancient monuments were being dilapidated, injured, or endangered. The Irish Land Act of 1903, however, provided that when any land sold under the Land Purchase Acts contains a monument which the Land Commission consider to be of public interest, they may, with the consent of the Commissioners of Public Works, declare by order that the property in the monument shall not pass to the purchaser, and vest it in the Commissioners of Public Works; or, in the event of the Commissioners of Public Works refusing their consent, the Land Commission could vest it in the County Council, subject to their consent.
In the form of application for the sale of an estate prescribed by the Land Commission rules, the vendor is obliged to state what, if any, Ancient Monuments are situated on the lands he proposes to sell; and the inspector who visits the lands on behalf of the Land Commission is instructed to report particularly on all structures of this kind that come beneath his notice. Up to the 31st March, 1916, thirty-four monuments had been vested in the Commissioners of Public Works and sixty-nine in various County Councils, in accordance with the provision of this section of the Act of 1903; and in other cases, such as that of the historic Hill of Tara, ancient monuments situated on estates being sold under the Land Purchase Acts have, by arrangement with the parties concerned, been placed under the guardianship of the Board of Works under the provisions of the Ancient Monuments Protection Acts.
Timber.
The Act of 1860, already mentioned in chapter 6, imposed certain penalties on tenants cutting down trees without the consent of the landlord, except in the case of timber duly registered under the Timber Acts; and power so to register timber was conferred upon tenants having statutory terms by the Timber Act of 1888. This restriction, however, did not extend to tenants who had become proprietors of their holdings under the Land Purchase Acts; and it was found, in 1902, that while the general tendency was to preserve trees for shelter purposes, there were some serious examples to the contrary, so that the opinion was widely expressed that some steps should be taken to protect existing timber from devastation. Section 32 (b) of the Act of 1909 accordingly provides that the proprietor of a holding purchased under that Act shall not, without the consent of the Department of Agriculture, cut down or uproot any tree (other than a fruit tree or osier) which is necessary for ornament or shelter; and for each offence under this section shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding £5.
Turbary.
Strictly speaking, turbary is the right to dig and carry away turf from the soil of another, and to enter upon his land for that purpose; and when such a right is appurtenant to a holding before the sale it is duly reserved to the tenant on vesting by Section 34 of the Land Act of 1896. When, however, a tenant had no such right before the sale, he can buy "parcels" of bog as additional land, which will be vested in him in fee-simple, subject to the payment of an annuity exactly as if it were a holding. These "parcels" may be bought direct from the landlord if he has bog available for the purpose, or from the Estates Commissioners if they have suitable bog in their possession acquired as untenanted land. Or, again, the Land Commission may vest bog in the Department of Agriculture, the County Council, the Rural District Council, or other trustees (Section 4, Act of 1903, as extended by Section 18, Act of 1909), who deal with it in accordance with a scheme prepared under Section 20 of the Act of 1903.
Section 21 of the Act of 1903 provides that where portion of a holding consists of bog, and the purchaser had not an exclusive right of turbary before the sale, the Land Commission may make regulations authorising the cutting or making of turf on that bog by any occupiers of land in the neighbourhood of the bog. As has now (1916) been decided by the Court of Appeal in the Scott Estate, over-ruling the decision in the King Harman Estate, the Commissioners have power to make these regulations at any time, even after the conclusion of the sale.
Mining and Mineral Rights.
In the early Land Acts, practically speaking, mining and mineral rights were left at the disposal of the interested parties by private contract; and not infrequently this course resulted in anomalies and inconveniences. The mineral rights on one or two holdings in the middle of an estate would belong to the tenant purchasers, while those on the surrounding holdings would remain in the possession of the landlord. The consequent division and confusion of ownership placed great and sometimes insuperable obstacles in the way of anyone attempting to work minerals where such existed in profitable quantities. The Act of 1903 (Section 13) therefore reserved to the Land Commission the exclusive right of mining and taking minerals on lands sold through the Estates Commissioners. This reservation did not affect mineral rights not in the possession or enjoyment of the vendor, or mines and quarries actually being worked at the time of sale; or, specifically, stone gravel sand or clay; nor did it apply to demesne or other lands re-sold to landlords, in pursuance of Section 3 of the Act.
The Irish Land Act, 1907, made provision for the disposal of the mining rights thus reserved. Under it, the Irish Land Commission may let, lease, sell or demise much exclusive right of mining and taking minerals, or digging or searching for them to any person, in such manner and subject to such conditions as they think proper. Section 13 of the Act of 1903 further provides that the vendor of the estate (or the person entitled if the lands had not been sold) shall be entitled to receive 25 per cent. of the profit accruing to the Land Commission from the exercise of these mining rights.
Sporting Rights.
Section 13 (1) of the Act of 1903 provides that, where at the time of sale of any land to the Land Commission, or to tenants or others, the vendor has, subject to the provisions of the Ground Game Act, 1880, sporting rights exclusive of the tenant, those rights may, by agreement between the vendor and purchaser, be either conveyed to the purchaser or be expressly reserved to the vendor, and, in the absence of such agreement, those rights shall be vested in the Land Commission.
Mortgages on Vested Holdings.
As between the Land Commission and the proprietor for the time being of any holding "for the purchase of which the Land Commission have, after the commencement of the Irish Land Act, 1903, made any advance under the Land Purchase Acts, Section 54 of the Act provides that the said proprietor shall not, without the consent of the Land Commission, mortgage or charge the holding, or any part thereof, for any sum or sums exceeding in the aggregate ten times the amount of the purchase annuity payable in respect of the holding (or part) upon the making of the advance; and every instrument of mortgage or charge on a holding (or part thereof) by which the holding (or part) is charged with any larger sum, shall be null and void as to the excess. Where part of a holding is mortgaged or charged, the Land Commission shall, for the purpose of this enactment, estimate the amount of the purchase annuity payable in respect of that part. The consent of the Land Commission under this enactment may, in the case of a charge created by a will, be given at any time, whether before or after the death of the testator.
Every instrument of mortgage or charge on the holding after the commencement of the Act of 1903, other than a charge under any Public Works Act, should be registered under the Local Registration of Title (Ireland) Act, 1891, as a burden affecting that holding; and if not so registered within three months from the date of execution by the mortgagor or chargeant—or, in the case of a charge created by will or codicil, within six months from the death of the testator—it becomes null and void.
The time limit in the case of a charge created by will or codicil was extended by the Irish Land Act, 1907, to twelve months from the date of the grant of probate of the will or letters of administration with the will annexed, as the case might be.
Sub-division and Sub-letting of Purchased Holdings.
Section 30 of the Land Act of 1881 provided that if the tenant purchaser sub-divided or let his holding without the consent of the Land Commission before the purchase annuity was paid off or if the title to the holding was divested from the proprietor by bankruptcy, or if on his decease the holding would become sub-divided or vested in more than one person, the Land Commission might cause the holding to be sold. These provisions were practically re-enacted by Section 54 of the Land Act of 1903.
When the Land Commission have consented to the subdivision of a holding, they are enabled by Section 38 of the Land Act of 1896 to apportion the annuity and make an order discharging part of the holding from any further liability to pay the same.
Compulsory Registration of Lands sold under the Land Purchase Acts.
Lands sold under the Land Purchase Acts and vested in purchasing tenants subject to Land Purchase Annuities are, pursuant to the Local Registration of Title (Ireland) Act, 1891, compulsorily registered in the Central and Local Offices of the Land Registry. There is a Local Office in each county in Ireland and a Central Office in the City of Dublin, which is also the Local Office as regards lands in the County of Dublin. When the holdings are vested in the purchasing tenants by the Land Commission, that Department furnishes to the Land Registry the necessary particulars for the registration of the lands, and these particulars are entered on the Registers, and the boundaries of the holdings are delineated on the Registry Maps. All subsequent dealings with the lands, such as Transfers, Charges, etc., must be registered. Lands acquired by Rural District Councils under the Labourers Acts are also compulsorily registered in the Land Registry.