§ MR. JOSEPH DEVLIN (Kilkenny,N.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that the estate of Mr. Theodore Augustin Hughes, situate in the Queen's County, has been sold to the tenants under the provisions of the Land Act of 1903; that there were upon the estate two sub-tenants named Mary Whelan and Johanna Higgins who had the status of judicial tenants and had had judicial rents fixed, who claimed to be entitled to purchase their farms under the 15th Section of the Land Purchase Act of 1903; and that the result of the negotiations upon the question was that the estate was sold, leaving these two judicial subtenants still in the occupation of tenancies on the estate; and, if so, will he say what power, if any, the Estates Commissioners enjoyed to sell the tenancies held by these sub-tenants to another tenant on the estate, and vest the same in such other tenant, as that is what, in effect, has been done or sanctioned by the Estates Commissioners.
§ MR. WALTER LONGThe persons named are sub-tenants on the holding of Thomas Warpole. By direction of the Commissioners, the vendor offered to sell to these sub-tenants the land occupied by them. The offers were refused, and the entire holding has been vested in Walpole.