§ MAJOR O'GORMANasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland, Whether his attention has been directed to the statements in the last Report of the Commissioners of Church Temporalities in Ireland, showing that the sales made by them in the Landed Estates Court realised under twenty-two years' purchase of the rental, and that out of the 1,116 perpetuity rents offered to the tenants only twenty-six have been sold, the rate demanded being twenty-five times the annual value; and, whether he is now prepared to advise the Commissioners to accept offers from the tenants for the 1301 purchase of these perpetuity rents on terms similar to those on which the Commissioners have sold the tithe rent-charges; and, if not, can he state what course is intended to be taken in respect to the sale of these perpetuity rents?
§ MR. J. LOWTHERMy attention has been called to this matter, and I find that the facts are correctly stated by the hon. and gallant Gentleman in the first part of his Question. As to the latter part, it would be impossible to advise the Commissioners in the sense suggested by him, as if the hon. and gallant Gentleman turns to Section 34 of the Irish Church Act, he will find the following provision:—
Perpetuity rents shall be offered to the owner of the land out of which they issue at a capital sum equal to 25 times the annual amount of such rent.The Statute, accordingly, establishes a minimum value below which the Commissioners are unable legally to go. I therefore see nothing to be done but to allow the matters to proceed according to the Act of Parliament.