§ MR. O'HEA (Donegal, W)asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, with regard to an advertisement by the Chief Clerk of the Irish Land Commission in The Derry Journal of the 21st instant, notifying an order in the matter of the estate of John Harris Hazlett Swiney, an owner of land, for a sale of part of the lands of Clooneymere, County Donegal, to William Daniel Swiney, the tenant thereof, by means of a vesting order of the Commission; Whether the land in question has been, and is, in the occupation of John Harris Hazlett Swiney the vendor, and whether William Daniel Swiney, described in the advertisement as the tenant of the land lives with his father, and is his servant and manager; and whether, under these circumstances, the vesting order for sale of this land will be issued by the Land Commission?
§ THE CHIEF SECRETARY (Sir MICHAEL HICKS-BEACH) (Bristol, W.)The Land Commissioners report that the farm referred to is not in the occupation of the vendor, as alleged in this question, but is, and has been for eight years, in the occupation of the tenant-purchaser under a contract of tenancy entered into eight years ago. The Commissioners are satisfied that there is ample security for the advance asked for. The relationship of father and son does not exclude a tenant from his statutory right to purchase if, as in this case, he be bonâ fide in occupation of the holding under a contract of tenancy; but in all such cases the Commissioners investigate the circumstances very closely. There is no residence on the farm; but this tenant resides partly on another farm of his 12 miles off, and partly with the vendor.