§ MR. O'DOHERTYTO ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether, in view of the evidence submitted to the Select Committee of this House on Land Acts (Ireland) in Session 1894, and of the pending sale to the agricultural tenants, the Government will consider the advisability of reappointing the Committee in order to provide that the capital realised by the sale of the estates will be held in trust for the people of Londonderry and district, and not taken away to London us happened in the case of the sale by the Grocers and other London companies to their Irish tenantry.
(Answered by Mr. Wyndham.) The hon. Member has sent me a newspaper report, from which it appears that the Irish Society proposes to sell its estates under the Act of last year. The purchase money must be applied in the first place in repaying the large loans which have been made to the Society by the Board of Works and raised on debentures issued under Parliamentary authority for public improvements in Derry and Coleraine, and in discharging other charges on the Society's estates. Any surplus that may remain will be expended by the Society, as in the past, for the benefit of Londonderry and Coleraine, and adjoining districts.