the terms of union was that the federal government of Canada agreed to contribute $800,000 towards the purchase of absentee landholdings on the Island. When Prince Edward Island subsequently enacted a land purchase statute in 1874, Governor General Dufferin, himself a landlord of estates in Ireland, rejected the statute without even consulting the federal cabinet, on the basis that the legislation was "monstrous". Dufferin later acceded to the statute, and on June 30, 1875, the Land Purchase Act, 1875 received royal assent. The sale of estates in Prince Edward Island larger than became compulsory. By the 1880s, the provincial government had purchased and resold to farmers. Legacy Some of the principles of the 1875 statute continue to this day in the Prince Edward Island Lands Protection Act. Non-residents are not permitted to purchase land in the province in excess of without approval from the cabinet. The Strathgartney Homestead in Bonshaw, a remnant of a large 19th-century estate, was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1996 on the basis that it represents both the old land tenure system that once dominated the island, and the subsequent transformation of the province under the Land Purchase Act of 1875. References Prince Edward Island provincial legislation 1875 in Canadian law Political history of Prince Edward Island 1875 in Prince Edward Island