§ MR. BRUNNERasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, In how many cases since March 10, 1887, the Land Commissioners in Ireland have refused to sanction the terms of purchase agreed to between landlord and tenant, and the amount of purchase money involved in these cases; and in how many of these cases the Land Commissioners subsequently sanctioned the terms on the amount of purchase money being reduced, the amount of purchase money agreed to between landlord and tenant in these cases in the first instance, and the amount finally sanctioned by the Land Commission?
§ The SOLICITOR GENERAL for IRELAND (Mr. MADDEN) (Dublin University)(who replied) said: The Land Purchase Commissioners report that a return of the cases specified would, for the period indicated in the question, take a few days to prepare. They, however, furnish a return of such cases for the period from the passing of the Purchase of Land Act, 1885, up to the 21st of August, 1888, which is as follows:—The total number of cases refused, whether on the ground of insufficiency of security, defect of title, or other reasons, is 1,377, the amount of purchase-money involved in these cases being £707,894. In 519 of these cases the Commissioners sanctioned reduced sums amounting to £204,210, the original purchase-money being £243,469.
§ SIR WILLIAM HARCOURT (Derby)Will these important figures be laid on the Table before the final liability of the country is decided on?
§ MR. MADDENCertainly. If they had been asked for before they would have been supplied. I shall have pleasure in handing them to the right hon. Gentleman.
§ SIR WILLIAM HARCOURTIt is not a question of my personal convenience, but whether the country is to know how the system which we are now asked to extend has worked.
§ THE LORD MAYOR OF DUBLIN (Mr. SEXTON) (Belfast, W.)said, what the House wanted to know was in how many cases the sale was vetoed by the Commissioners on the ground of the landlord asking too high a price, and in how many of such cases the sale was subsequently agreed to on the landlord reducing the price?
§ MR. MADDENsaid, that he had, he thought, already stated, when introducing the Bill, that of the 1,377 cases in which the Commissioners refused to carry out the sale, there were 1,100 in which the reason was that the price was too high.
§ MR. SEXTONasked in how many of these cases the landlord subsequently reduced the price and thus secured a sale?
§ MR. MADDENsaid, he was not at present in a position to answer that.
§ SIR WILLIAM PLOWDEN (Wolverhampton, W.)asked, how many cases there were of men who had purchased and subsequently failed to pay their instalments and abandoned their holdings?
§ MR. MADDENsaid, he know of no such cases.
§ SIR WILLIAM PLOWDENWhat I am asking for is information as to any case in which a person bound to pay instalments has given up the property, which has accordingly been thrown on the hands of the Commissioners.
§ MR. MADDENI am not aware of any such case, and I do not believe that any such exists.
§ MR. CONYBEARE (Cornwall, Camborne)asked whether, having regard to the importance of the information given, the First Lord of the Treasury still proposed to closure the debate that evening on the Land Purchase Bill.
§ THE FIRST LORD (Mr. W. H. SMITH) (Strand, Westminster)said, he had not indicated that he intended to close the debate that night. The action of the Government would depend upon the circumstances of the case.
§ MR. SHEEHY (Galway, S.)asked, whether the Solicitor General for Ireland was aware that an Emergency man, who purchased a farm from a landlord named M'Namara in the West of Limerick, had ceased his payments and been proceeded against by the Commissioners?
§ MR. MADDENsaid, he was not aware of that case. Perhaps the hon. Gentleman would put a Question on the Paper.