SIR. HERVEY BRUCEasked the First Lord of the Treasury, Whether his attention has been called to the case of the late tenants of the Marquess of Waterford who have been unable to obtain from the Irish Board of Works the money to purchase their farms, as contemplated by the Landlord and Tenant Act; and, if so, whether he will endeavour to remedy the position of those tenants who purchased on the faith of that Act; and, whether he will object to lay upon the Table of the House a Copy of the authority that compelled the Board of Works to refuse the loans, which by its printed forms it appears to be legally entitled to advance after purchase by the tenant?
MR. GLADSTONE, in reply, said this was a subject on which the hon. Member for Kilkenny (Sir John Gray) had previously asked a Question, and he was glad that further attention had been drawn to it. There was no doubt that in consequence of the forms that were issued by the Board of Works in Ireland some tenants intending to become purchasers were misled into the belief that they could obtain advances under the Act, even if they made no application until after they had made their offers and concluded their transactions. The Government had in consequence to consider the subject, and they were decidedly of opinion that it would not be expedient, nor would it be according to the intention with which the Act was proposed and, he believed, adopted, that they should recognize as a rule for the future, the right of the tenants to apply for loans after the completion of their purchases, not on the ground of a desire to narrow or cripple their operations, but because it would be for the advantage of the tenants that their applications should be made for loans prior to the purchase. With respect to those who had acted on the faith of the notice of the Irish Board of Works, it was proposed to bring in a Bill to meet their case, because the Go- 1948 vernment thought they ought to be borne harmless from any inconvenience arising from what they thought a reasonable construction of the notice. Under these circumstances he did not think it necessary to present the Papers referred to by the hon. Baronet.