HC Deb 30 March 1897 vol 48 cc103-4
MR. M. MCCARTAN (Down, S.)

I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether he will state the number of fair rent applications received from the Counties of Down and Antrim respectively, and still remaining unheard?

MR. GERALD BALFOUR

In County Down 1,538 applications have been received which have not yet been listed. The applications on the current lists, now with the Sub-Commission for disposal, comprise 517 cases, and these cases are in various stages of progress. In the County Antrim there are 1,267 applications unlisted, and 323 cases have been listed for hearing, which will shortly be commenced.

MR. JASPER TULLY (Leitrim, S.)

I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether the attention of the Land Commission has been directed to the cases of the tenants at Fearnaught, near Dromod, South Leitrim, who purchased their holdings some years ago from their landlord; whether he is aware that they have been paying each year three-fourths of the purchase money to the Land Commission and one-fourth to the landlord, and that the landlord has attempted to make the instalments payable to him a perpetual charge on their holdings; and whether he can state what steps the Land Commission are prepared to take to have the ownership of these holdings transferred to the purchasing tenants?

MR. GERALD BALFOUR

The sales referred to were carried out under the Purchase Clauses of the Land Law Act 1881, under which not more than three-fourths of the price could be advanced by the Land Commission. Advances of that amount were made on the 4th December 1882 to 20 tenants on an estate comprising the townland mentioned. These advances are now being paid by annuities calculated at the rate of 4 per cent. on the advance. The annuities have in all said cases been paid up to date. One-fourth of the purchase money in each case was secured to vendor by mortgage charged on the holdings. This was quite regular. The ownership was vested in the tenant purchasers, but subject to the mortgages referred to.

MR. VESEY KNOX (Londonderry)

I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that the rent fixed by the Sub-Commissioners on the farm of Mr. W. J. Cuthbert, at Culmore, was raised from £79 15s. to £96 16s. by the Commission, on the report of the court valuer, the court valuer giving as his reason its proximity to a railway station, though at the Culmore station there is no siding or other means of loading agricultural produce; and, whether he will call the attention of the Land Commission to the desirability of considering in similar cases whether the station is in fact of any use for the carriage of agricultural produce?

MR. GERALD BALFOUR

The only holdings of W. J. Cuthbert which came before the Land Commission at their recent sitting at Londonderry were two holdings on which rents fixed at £13 15s. and £66 by the Sub-commission, were raised by the Land Commissioners to £15 6s. and £81 10s. respectively. In neither of these cases is there any reference to any proximity to a railway station at, Culmore in the court valuer's report.