§ SIR G. CAMPBELLI beg to ask the Attorney General for Ireland whether the sale of a holding for non-payment of instalments, under the Land Purchase Acts, gives the new purchaser a clear Parliamentary title, free of all other claims and liabilities; and whether the arrears of the instalments are a first charge on the money raised by the sale?
§ MR. MADDENIn the case of the sale of a holding for non-payment of instalments, the transfer of the holding is effected by means of conveyance by the Irish Land Commission to the purchaser, the holding being conveyed freed from any liabilities, except any liabilities incident to the tenure, such as head rent, subject to which the holding may have been originally purchased, and subject, of course, to the payment of the future instalments of the annuity if (as is usual) the holding is sold subject thereto under the provisions of the 15th section of the Act of 1885. The title cannot be accurately described as a Parliamentary title; but if the Local Registration of Title Bill, which has been read a second time by the House, should become law, the title of the purchaser, as well as of the original tenant, will be in all cases absolute and indefeasible. The arrears of the instalments, as provided by Sub-section 3 of Section 30 of the Act of 1881, are applied first in discharge of the arrears due to the Commissioners unless 64 the holding was subject to a head rent or other outgoing in priority to the advance.