§ MR. JAMES O'KELLY (Roscommon, N.)To ask Mr. Attorney-General for Ireland whether he is aware that the Estates Commissioners in some instances interpret the words "an estate mainly agricultural," in Section 10 of the Land Act of 1903, as meaning an estate consisting of holdings mainly agricultural or pastoral; whether, in determining whether a large estate containing a small town is mainly agricultural and pastoral and an estate within the meaning of the Act, it is the duty of the Estates Commissioners to ascertain first to what extent the householders of such a town are 293 engaged in agricultural pursuits, the nature of their house property, and the relation of the price of such a town to the price of the whole estate; and whether the Estates Commissioners have had before them the proposal to purchase "the entire interest of Mrs. Grace Pakenham Mahon in her whole estates in the county Roscommon, including the small town of Strokestown.
(Answered by Mr. Atkinson.) I am not aware that the Estates Commissioners put any such interpretation on the 10th Section. I must decline to answer the second query as to the proper interpretation of the section, which is a I matter for the determination of the Estates Commissioners, instructed by, and subject to the review of, Mr. Justice Meredith.