THROUGH THE ARCHIVES: Resolutions passed at tenant-right meeting at Coleraine

A tenant-right meeting had been held the previous day by the Liberals of the town Coleraine and neighbouring districts, reported the News Letter.

Mr John McElderry of Ballymoney put forward the following resolutions at the meeting. First, “that the Land Act of 1870 having failed to protect the interest of the tenant-farmers of Ireland in their holdings, we believe that the Government measure of the coming session should embrace the following points: a, fair rents; b, fixity of tenure; and c, free sale”.

Secondly, “that in order to determine what is a fair rent, we believe such rent should be settled by an impartial and independent tribunal, in which both landlord and tenant shall be equally represented”.

The third resolution put forward at the meeting read “that increased and extended facilities should be given to enable tenants to become peasant proprietors, and that the whole of the purchase-money ought to be provided by the State, to be repayable by easy instalments, and we urge upon the Government the propriety of at once buying up on easy terms the Irish estates of the London Companies, and selling the holdings on those estates to the tenants”.

Meanwhile a later resolution demanded that: “In order to raise the comforts of the labouring classes, we believe that increased powers for improving and building labourers’ cottages should be given to the Board of Works.”