§ MR. J. P. FARRELLI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, whether in the case of the sales of the tenants' interests in grazing farms in county Longford, which had been previously purchased under the Ashbourne Act, the Estates Commissioners have power to buy in such farms; and, if not, whether, seeing that, owing to the scarcity of untenanted land in the county, these farms offer almost the only chance that will arise for providing new or equivalent holdings for the evicted tenants, eighty-six of whose applications are on the books of the Estates Commissioners, he will propose any legislation to extend the Land Act of 1903 so as to include these farms as farms that can be bought by the Estates Commissioners for this purpose.
§ MR. ATKINSONThe Estates Commissioners have no power to make advances for the purchase from peasant proprietors of the holdings purchased by the latter until the purchase annuities charged on the holdings have been paid or redeemed.
§ MR. J. P. FARRELLWhen are these evicted tenants going to get back to the land?
§ MR. ATKINSONwas understood to say he hoped there would be no long delay.