§ MR. J. P. FARRELL (Longford, N.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether his attention has been called to the recent letting of a grazing farm of eighty-six Irish acres at Ballymore, on the Plains of Boyle, and to the fact that when the farm had been surrendered to the agent for the landlord, five tenants with small congested holdings adjoining memorialised the agent to have the grazing farm cut up and divided between them, offering either to pay a fine for the portions allotted to them, or such rent as the outgoing tenant had paid—viz., £1 11s. per acre, and that, notwithstanding these tenants' offer, the lands were let to a large grazier at a rent of £1 5s. per acre; and whether he is aware that these tenants were the lineal descendants of the men who were evicted off this land in 1846; and, if so, whether he will consent to the scheduling of this portion of County Roscommon under the Congested Districts Clause of the Land Bill, with a view of restoring these descendants of evicted tenants to their native holdings.
§ MR. J. P. FARRELLI beg also to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether, in view of the fact that the plains of Boyle, off which hundreds of families were evicted in years gone by, is outside the operation of the Congested Districts Board, and of the circumstances in which families are living on adjoining lands, he will include these tracts for resettlement in the Land Bill now before the House.
§ MR. WYNDHAMThese lands can, under the Bill, be purchased from the owner if willing to sell. If so purchased the Bill contains ample powers for resettlement.