§ MR. MAURICE HEALY (Cork)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland if he will state down to what year returns have, up to the present, been made out for the Land Judge under the rules made pursuant to Section 40 of the Land Law (Ireland) Act, 1896, of estates to which that section in the first instance applies; how far the returns already presented have been gone through by the Judge in the regular course; how many "requests" have been issued by the Judge to the Land Commission under the section; how many reports have been made by the Land Commission pursuant to such requests; how many estates have been offered for sale to the tenants under the section, and accepted by the tenants, and what the number of such tenants is, and the total amount of the purchase money; how many estates have been actually vested in the tenants under the section, and what the number of such tenants is; and whether the offer of sale to the tenants has been refused by them in any and what cases?
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURThe end of 1886 is the latest date to which the returns mentioned in the first paragraph have been prepared. These returns have been gone through as far as the estate of Maurice Fitzgerald, referred to at page 4 of the Return laid on the Table in March last. The answers to the third and fourth paragraphs are 111 and 75 respectively. In 51 of the latter the Land Commissioners have received the order of the Land Judge directing the offer to be made to the tenants. In the ease of 40 estates the holdings were offered for sale to 481 tenants, and the offers, representing 39 estates, were 493 accepted or deemed to have been accepted by 454 tenants. The purchase money for these 454 cases amounted to £142,302. In the case of three additional estates the offers have been made, but the time for the acceptance of such offers by the tenants has not yet expired. Twenty-eight estates have been vested in 367 tenants, the amount advanced being £109,673. In 30 cases on 11 estates the tenants did not accept the offers so made to them, but in three of these cases on two estates the Land Judge subsequently made orders deeming these tenants to have accepted the offers so made to them, and the sales have been made to them on the basis of this order.