CAPTAIN SINCLAIRI beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for War, in regard to England and Scotland respectively, if he will state how many county and borough councils have exercised the powers given for the purchase of land under the Military Lands Act, 1892; what number of acres has been so purchased; what sum has been so expended; and what proportion of that sum has been borrowed under the powers conferred by the Act.
§ * MR. WYNDHAMThe War Office has cognisance only of cases where compulsion is required, and only one such case has occurred among purchases made by county or borough councils, viz., at Great Yarmouth. The Local Government Board has cognisance of all sums of money borrowed under the Act; two cases have occurred, a loan of £12,600 to the town council of Nottingham, for the purchase of 120 acres of land for rifle ranges; and a loan of £123 to the town council of Chesterfield, for the purchase of two roods of land for a drill hall. But when the council is able to buy the land by agreement, and without borrowing, the transaction is not reported to any Government department.