§ MR. DAVITTI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether, in view of the Resolution unanimously adopted by the House of Commons on 13th April 1894, and supported by all sections of Irish Members, favouring the extension to Ireland of all the legal facilities existing in England for the creation of labourers' allotments or small holdings of land, he will introduce a measure to that effect during the present Session, and thereby encourage the fuller and better cultivation of the soil in Ireland, and increase in this manner opportunities of profitable employment for the industrial population of that country?
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURThe terms of the Resolution in question were "that all the facilities for obtaining land now possessed by England should be at once extended to Ireland." The object aimed at by the hon. Member is to some extent met by the Labourers Acts of 1883 to 1896, which do not apply to England. The condition of affairs in Ireland, which is already a country of small holdings, is materially different 1555 from that in England, and I am not prepared to affirm, even apart from the question of machinery, that the same arrangements should he made to apply to both countries. I do not say that the subject in its more general aspect is not worthy of consideration, but the Government in any case cannot undertake to introduce legislation dealing with it in the present Session.
§ MR. DAVITTMay I ask the right hon. Gentleman whether, in view of the probability that such a Measure would pass without opposition, he will not reconsider his decision?
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURI am unable to take the same view as the hon. Gentleman as to the probability of a Measure of this kind being entirely unopposed; and I could give no pledge in the direction indicated without a further assurance on the point, and without giving the subject a great deal of further consideration.