§ MR. D. MACALEESE (Monaghan, N.)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury how it happens, while the stamp duty imposed upon conveyances in ordinary cases is computed at 10s. per cent., the duty in land purchase cases is not only 10s. per cent. on the purchase money, but 10s. per cent. also on the value of the unpaid instalments calculated up to the end of the 49 years during which the tenant has to make payments; and can anything be done to mitigate this burden upon small tenant purchasers?
§ MR. HANBURYAs my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer 626 explained in reply to a similar Question put to him on the 10th June 1896, the provisions of the Stamp 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.