§ MR. SEXTON (Kerry, N.)On behalf of the hon. Member for East Galway, I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether John Meara, tenant farmer, of Derrahinny, near Portumna, County Galway, on applying last March to the Board of Works for a loan of £60 for the improvement of his holding, was required by the Board to forward a receipt showing payment of his rent to November last, and thereupon paid the rent to that date and transmitted the receipt to the Board; whether the Board then called upon him to pay the rent up to May last, 455 a date subsequent to the time of his application, and to send them the receipt; whether, notwithstanding au explanation by the tenant that the rent had already been paid up to the latest customory period, and that the half-year owing represented the hanging-gale, the Board have declined to make the loan on the ground that the security of the tenant's interest in the land has been endangered by "dilatory observance" of the condition as to payment of rent; whether the Treasury approve of refusing a loan where the rent had been paid up to the latest customary period; and whether the Board will reconsider the case?
§ SIR J. T. HIBBERTI am informed that Mr. John Meara's Memorial for a loan of £60 was received on the 26th of April, 1894. It appeared therefrom that rent had been paid only to November, 1892, and it was represented that a hanging-gale was allowed on the estate on which he is a tenant. As, however, Mr. Meara is a judicial tenant he was not legally entitled to any concession of this nature. On receipt of the Memorial the applicant was asked to forward a receipt for the November, 1893, gale of rent, that being, at the time, the latest period to which rent should be paid. Before this requirement was complied with the Board of Works learned from the landlord that the rent to 1st November, 1892, had not been paid till Mr. Meara had been served with ejectments, and just before his time as caretaker expired, and also that the May gale should have been paid when due, thus showing that the rent had not been paid to the latest customary period. As the Board of Works' security for a Land Law Loan is the tenant's interest in his holding it is apparent that anything that would weaken that security should enter largely into the consideration of the question whether a loan should be made. Here the tenant's rent is in arrear for 1½ years, and, in consequence, it is open to his landlord to institute proceedings for ejectment and termination of the tenant's interest.
§ MAJOR RASCH (Essex, S. E.)Would an Essex tenant have any chance of borrowing £60 if he did not pay his rent?
§ SIR J. T. HIBBERTI do not suppose he would.