§ MR. MAURICE HEALY (Cork)I beg to ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his attention has been called to the fact that in Ireland, when a holding which has been purchased under the Land Purchase Acts is sold, the advance made by the Land Commission on the purchase and still remaining due is for the purpose of computing the 10s. per cent. duty on the conveyance added to the purchase money, and that though in point of value nothing more is bought and paid for than if the tenant's former tenancy was being sold, stamp duty has to be paid upon the same amount as if the whole of the Land Commission advance had been paid off. And, whether he will introduce a provision into the Finance Bill making the Law conformable with the real fact, and treating the annuity payable to the Land Commission as being substituted for and equivalent to the former rent.
§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER (Sir MICHAEL HICKS BEACH,) Bristol, WThe provisions of the Stamp 1156 Act to which the hon. Member refers are not confined to Ireland. They apply equally to the sale of any property subject to the payment of money, whether by way of charge or incumbrance or not, and the treatment of land sold subject to repayment of the Land Commission advance is the same as that of land sold subject to an ordinary mortgage. What is bought is more than the tenant's former tenancy. It is a registered freehold title, subject to a terminable charge in favour of the Land Commission.