Tenants’s answer to proposal to settle under the new rules of the Land Act of 1881.
25th September 1882
To Colonel White,
Honored Sir,
We, your tenants of Cushleake, who have given notice of entering the Land Court, assembled in meeting, have considered the proposals kindly made to us by you through your agent. The first two proposals we do not wish to agree to, as we have little confidence in irresponsible valuers or irresponsible umpires. We are willing and anxious to come to a settlement with our landlord to save trouble and also not to break the good relations that exist between the White family and their tenants. We also kindly bear in mind your considerate treatment of us during the past two years; although we believe the Land Commissioners, when they see our high mountain holdings, the steep and almost unworkable hilly fields, the difficult and almost impassable roads, and our distance from market towns, would give the most of us more than 33 per cent reduction. With a few exceptions, we are prepared to accept this reduction in our rent; namely, 33 per cent.
We feel that with a less reduction we could not continue to pay our rents and live in any kind of comfort. That percentage we know is a pretty sharp reduction in your income; but the arrears among your tenants who could not possibly manage to scrape the rent together to get the advantages of your reductions of the last years’ rents, tell you forcibly and eloquently of the state of your tenants and our inability to pay present rates. We will be anxious to know how you are pleased to entertain our proposal and what you have to say in return. We wish as soon as convenient to know your will, as in the event of your refusal to accede to our proposal we have preparations to make for the Land Court, which will soon be sitting here.
Signed on behalf of the meeting,
Robert McKay, Chairman
Michael McCormick, Secretary.
Ballyterim, Cushendun
Generosity of an Antrim Landlord to his Tenants. 17th April 1880
To the Editor of the Belfast News Letter.
SIR, Please permit me to bring before your readers and the public the noble generosity of an Antrim landlord to his tenants. Mr. John White, of White Hall, Broughshane, and now in London, hearing of the serious and wide-spread distress in the Glens of Antrim, has, with a princely generosity, returned to his tenants on his Innispollen property here, one third of their rents, all of which rents had been paid some months ago to his agent, Mr. Edmund McNeill, Craigdun; and in addition, he has supplied all his tenants with as much seed oats and potatoes as they need. He has also forwarded me £10 for the relief of the poor on his property. Gererosity and practical sympathy of a landlord for his tenants in distress, such as this, have not, I believe, been equalled by any landlord in Ireland in these trying times. If other landlords of the Glens had come to the assistance of their distressed tenants, even in a slight degree, like Mr. White, our relief committee would not have had such a hard and painful struggle to provide food for many half starving people, as also seed for the farmers, who, having paid their rents to the last shilling, had nothing left wherewith to buy seed, nor credit to get it on. As a committee we appealed to them on behalf of their tenants; but the only ones who responded to our appeal were Major White, who is now gallantly fighting in Cabul, and Mr. H. McNeill, of Parkmount, both of whom supplied seed to their tenants, Mr. McNeill also contributing £10 to our committee [missing] £20 to be distributed among his poorer tenants. Only for the exertions of our committee, which is composed of the clergy of all denominations, the magistrates of the district (Colonel McDonnell being chairman), the doctors and some shopkeepers of Cushendall, the Glens people, would, I fear, many of them, have been in a pitiable condition-the poor for want of food and very many of the farmers for want of seed. In this district of Cushendun we have been giving for the past two months relief in Indian meal weekly to nearly 200 individuals, and in Cushendall district like relief has been given to a much larger number.
And having got the Glens scheduled as a distressed district, we have been enabled to procure seed for a great number of small distressed farmers, whose lands otherwise would have been left untilled, unseeded and waste. The relief committee of the Glens has already received £50 from the Duchess of Marlborough’s fund, £75 from the Mansion House, and £25 from the New York Herald fund. But our funds being now exhausted, we only having on hands as much as will pay for this week’s meal, and being in doubt whether the Dublin relief committee will come to our assistance or not, we feel ourselves in great straits as to how to provide for so many half-starving and distressed people, who are now appealing to and, I may say, depending on us for food. But a charitable public will, I trust, when it hears of the distress in the Glens (for very many feel an interest in the Glens, its quiet, orderly, friendly people, and its varied, charming and romantic scenery) come to our aid and lend a helping hand to enable us to carry on the charitable and much needed good work.
In answer to those who may ask, “How is it that the Glens are so much worse off than the rest of County Antrim?” I may say that the Glens, in their mountainous and elevated situation, resemble very much the wilds of Donegal, and all know how disastrously the cold, rainy and sunless summer of the past year told on the crops there.
I remain, your obedient servant,
Eugene McCartan, P.P. Member of the Glens Relief Committee.