§ MR. M'CARTAN (Down, S.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether his attention has been called to a circular recently sent to the tenants on the Wallace Estate, Lisburne, requiring, under threat of proceedings, payment of the rent due at November last; whether he is aware that the tenants have been informed that the rents must in future be paid on the 1st of February in each year, as the rents have been judicially fixed, and the tenants have an opportunity of purchasing at a further reduction of 20 per cent, with the fee-simple for nothing; whether he is aware that the rent now required is known as "the lying term," and was not formerly demanded for more than 12 months after it fell due since it was allowed to stand over from the famine years; and whether, considering the practices already adopted on this estate, he will mention to the Laud Commission the desirability of a searching inquiry into the facts of purchases by the tenants in order to save them from paying prices in excess of what the Land Commission sanctions?
MR. J. MORLEYThe facts, I am informed, are correctly stated in the first three paragraphs. My hon. Friend is aware that in several cases, on the Commissioner refusing to lend more than a certain amount, the balance of the price was demanded from and paid by the tenant, and an agreement for the lesser sum as the price lodged with the Land Commission. This matter was the subject of a Judgment by Mr. Justice Bewley in July, 1893, and since then the Commissioners believe that the cash payments made by the tenants are set out on the agreements for purchase. The Land Commission cannot prevent purchasers paying any prices they choose, and its duties and powers with reference to the security are limited to seeing that the loan is satisfactorily secured, not to seeing that the price is fair, if the tenant chooses to pay part of the price himself.