§ MR. NOLAN (Louth, N.)asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether he is aware that landlords in Ireland are using the power given them as to notices of eviction by registered letter, under the 7th section of "The Land Law (Ireland) Act, 1887," for the purpose of compelling their tenants to purchase their holdings at extravagant prices; whether he can state if it is a fact that two tenants, named Peter Marron and Owen Byrne, of Tully parish and County of Louth, on the estate of Mr. Arthur J. Hamill, were upwards of six months sued by ejectment process and decreed for nonpayment of arrears of old rent; whether these tenants, with others on same estate, had fair rents fixed by the Court, and the old rents were reduced from 40 to 50 per cent; whether notices of eviction were served in the above two cases, and the six months having elapsed, and the tenants having been unable to pay the old exorbitant rents and costs claimed in the notices, the landlord has obliged them to enter into agreements for purchase of their holdings at 25 years' purchase; and, whether the Land Commission will in such cases sanction sales so brought about?
§ THE CHIEF SECRETARY (Mr. A. J. BALFOUR) (Manchester, E.)I am not aware that landlords in Ireland are acting as alleged in the first paragraph of this Question. The Land Commissioners inform me that Marron had a fair rent fixed in May last, at a reduction of nearly 50 per cent, but that Byrne's application to have a fair rent fixed still awaits a hearing. They further state that no application has been received from either of those men under the Land Purchase Act. The Commissioners have repeatedly intimated that, having to administer an Act whose operations are founded on the free contracts of the parties, they would be wholly opposed to any coercion being exercised to induce either tenants or landlords to enter into such contracts.