HC Deb 21 April 1904 vol 133 cc846-7
MR. CHARLES CRAIG (Antrim, S.)

I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether, in view of the fact that when an advance is sanctioned under the Land Act of 1903. the only bank in which the amount advanced can be placed on deposit receipt, pending the Land Commissioners being satisfied with the title to the purchase-money, is the Bank of Ireland; that this bank has refused to give a special rate for such deposits, and that the rate of interest allowed to depositors by the Bank of Ireland is one-half per cent, less than that given by the other great banks in England and Ireland, he will, by legislation or otherwise, abolish this monopoly of the Bank of Ireland, and give facilities for such lodgments being made with other banks.

THE FINANCIAL SECRETARY TO THE TREASURY (Mr. VICTOR CAVENDISH,) Derbyshire, W.

The purchase-money paid into the Bank of Ireland pending distribution is not in the first instance placed there on deposit receipt; it must be invested after fourteen days in accordance with rules made by the Land Commission unless the parties themselves ask to have it placed in the Bank of Ireland on deposit receipt. Under the rules of the Supreme' Court of Judicature, Ireland, the deposit-receipts of banks other than the Bank of Ireland are not authorised securities for such a purpose. I am not aware that the Bank of Ireland allows a lower rate of interest to depositors generally than the other Irish banks do, though the other Irish banks appear to allow preferential rates in some eases while the Bank of Ireland does not. It would be highly inconvenient that the purchase-money should be paid into a different bank from that which keeps the accounts of the Land Commission and of the National Debt Commissioners; and I cannot undertake to propose any change in the law or practice governing the matter.