§ MR. D. MACALEESE, (Monaghan, N.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant for Ireland if the Land Commissioners were acting legally in obliging the proprietor tenants on the Lennard Estate, Clones, to hand over documents which those tenants had paid for; and, if so, will he point out the Act of Parliament and section under which the Commissioners derive this authority?
MR. GERALD BALEOURI presume the documents referred to are the copy Vesting Orders issued to the tenant purchasers before the Registration Act, 1891, came into operation. The 94th Section of that Act empowered the Land Judge, with the approval of the Lord Chancellor, to make rules for the custody of any instrument coming into the hands 489 of the Central or Local Registration Office, and one of the rules made under the authority of this enactment provides that the Registering Authority shall retain in Court all documents of title relating exclusively to registered land. Copy Vesting Orders relate exclusively to registered land and are retained as subsequent dealings must be recorded on the register.