§ MR. TULLY (Leitrim, S.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that the tenants on the Godley Estate, near Carrigallen, South Leitrim, agreed, some of them in April, 1890, and the remainder in August of the same year, to buy their holdings at 15 years' purchase under the Ashbourne Act; whether he has been informed that those who agreed to purchase in August, 1890, were not recognised as purchasers owing to the insertion of a clause about turbary, and were processed to the Ballinamore Quarter Sessions last June, and decrees issued against them; that they then agreed to purchase under the Land Purchase Act of 1891, getting the same advantages as those who had previously bought under the Ashbourne Act; that some of this batch have been noticed that they are recognised as purchasers, and that others have not; and that one widow, who sold her cow to meet the demands of the agent of the Trustees, was processed to the Carrick-on-Shannon Quarter Sessions, and had her money returned because it did not include 5s. costs; and whether he will recommend the Land Commission to take immediate steps to rescue the affairs of this estate from a 553 state of confusion, and have the purchases in all the cases properly completed?
MR. J. MORLEYThe facts, I believe, are accurately set forth in the question. In the case, however, of the widow referred to, lam informed that the matter has since been settled by the payment of 2s. costs instead of 5s. With regard to the sales on this estate, the Land Commission inform me that in October, 1890, 59 agreements were lodged with them under the Purchase Acts of 1885–1888, and that advances have been made in 41 of these cases. In the remaining cases, one application was refused; in two cases the tenants died subsequently to the application; in two cases questions are still unsettled regarding the accuracy of the areas of the holdings; and in 13 cases the applications are still pending in consequence of the solicitor having charge of the estate not having taken steps to complete the same. In addition, 28 agreements have been recently lodged under the Act of 1891, and advances have been made in 21 of these cases. The Commissioners endeavour to prevent delay occurring in completing sales under the Purchase Acts, but they explain that delay is sometimes occasioned by the difficulties which arise owing to the nature of the vendor's title, the inability or want of activity of the vendor's solicitor, and sometimes to the failure of the tenant purchasers to comply with the requisitions of the Commissioners.