§ MR. O'SHAUGHNESSYI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, whether he is aware that the costs attendant on the statement and abstract of title to the plots of land acquired under the Labourers (Ireland) Acts, and paid for by the local authorities out of the rates, amount in many cases to more than the value of the plots; and whether he has any 393 objection to the insertion of a clause in the Labourers (Ireland) Bill by which any person in possession as owner or apparent owner of the lands, and receiving the rents and profits of same for six years or upwards, shall be entitled to the compensation without further inquiry into the title.
§ MR. WYNDHAMIn individual cases the fact is as stated in the first part of the Question. But a reference to the Return which I laid on the Table on the 28th April shows that the total costs of every description in connection with the last completed schemes throughout Ireland (and not merely the cost of proving title) averaged only about £8 per cottage, or about one-eighteenth of the entire cost of land, buildings, legal, engineering, and other expenses. The suggestion in the second part of the Question is already receiving consideration.