§ MR. BRUENasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland, Whether the statement made in page 4 of the last Report of the Irish Church Temporalities Commissioners—" that 4,536 small proprietors had, up to the end of 1876, been created by the operation of the Irish Church Act"—is intended to imply that 4,536 separate and distinct persons became, by the sales to them of their holdings under the Irish Church Act, possessors of real property, not having been so before such sales; and, if not, what qualification, and to what extent, must be placed on the above statement; and, whether he will consent to lay upon the Table of the House a Return of the names of these 4,536 persons, with such details as may identify them, and the sales made to each of them, or any other Returns by means of which the exact number of persons who, up to the end of 1876, were created proprietors by the operation of the Irish Church Act, may be ascertained?
§ SIR MICHAEL HICKS-BEACHI am informed by the Irish Church Temporalities Commissioners that, in a few cases out of the 4,536 holdings reported by them as sold to tenants up to the end of 1876, there was a consolidation of holdings; and therefore the number of proprietors created may not possibly have been more than 4,400. About 10 per cent. or 450 holdings, were conveyed to persons not tenants, the tenants having paid the purchase-money and directed the conveyances to be made to those other persons. The tenants were consenting parties, and signed the deeds. The names of all purchasers of Church 537 lands up to the first of July, 1876, were given in August last, in pursuance of a Return made to an order of the House of Lords. The Commissioners propose to give a continuation of this Return in their next Report, bringing the sales and the names of the purchasers up to the end of 1877.