§ 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 Sec. 40 of the Land Law (Ireland) Act, 1896, of estates to which that section in the first instance apprlies; 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. ATKINSON (for Mr. G. W. BALFOUR)Returns, such as referred to, have been prepared so far as they relate to cases in which receivers were appointed prior to 1891, and all the estates comprised in these returns have been dealt 726 with by the Land Judge with a view to their being sold under the 40th section, or of determining whether they were estates to which the provisions of that section apply. The return for the period between 1891 and 1896 is in course of preparation and is almost complete. The number of requests lodged with the Land Commission under the section is 154; the number of estates in which the Land Commission have made their reports to the Land Judge is 127; the number of estates in which orders of the Land Judge have been lodged with the Land Commission is 81; the Land Commission have made offers in the case of 74 estates to 1,247 tenants, of whom 1,101 have accepted these offers, and 146 have not accepted them, while advances amounting to £230,197 have been made to 802 tenants for the purchase of their holdings on 54 estates. In the case of seven estates where the Orders of the Land Judge have been received and where offers have not been made, the offer are in course of preparation and some of them will be made within a few days. The total amount of the purchase money in the case of the 146 tenants who have not accepted the offers made to them is £49,778.