§ MR. M'CARTANI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether he will state how many agreements for the purchase of holdings by the tenants have been filed in the Irish Land Commission Court since 3rd September, 1891; in how many of these cases has the purchase money been advanced; and whether, considering the state in which these holdings are as to title pending the completion of the purchase, he will communicate with the Land Commissioners on the subject?
MR. ASQUTTH(who replied) said: I am informed that altogether 5,221 agree- 1284 ments (including in the total 1,143 undertakings by tenants to purchase holdings in the event of the Land Commission buying estates) have been filed since the date mentioned, and that in the case of 1,776 of these the purchase money has been advanced. The Commissioners have referred me to their last Parliamentary Report, dated May 31, 1893, which contains full information as to the state of land purchase proceedings up to that date, and they add, as indicating the state of business in the Land Purchase Department in relation to title, that at the present date there are only five abstracts of title lodged in which rulings have not been issued.