HC Deb 07 August 1905 vol 151 cc351-2
MR. WEIR

To ask the Lord-Advocate if he will state how many tenants have been settled by the Congested Districts † See (4) Debates, cl., 907. Board on the Syre Estate, Sutherlandshire; and what number have failed in their obligations to the Board, owing to the holdings not being sufficiently productive to admit of payment of the rentals exacted.

(Answered by Mr. Scott Dickson.) The hon. Member seems to be under a misapprehension as to the Syre Estate. The settlers, who are twenty-three in number, are not tenants but purchasers of their holdings; the only payment exacted is interest at Treasury rate on money actually advanced. There have been three cases of default, of which one has led to a removal of the purchaser. The hon. Member's assumption in the last part of his Question cannot be admitted.

MR. WEIR

To ask the Lord-Advocate whether he is aware that much of the land acquired by the Congested Districts Board at Syre, Sutherlandshire, was purchased by the Board at a price far exceeding its productive value, with the result that some of the tenants to whom holdings on the estate have been allocated are unable to obtain a sufficient return from the land to enable them to pay the rentals exacted by the Board; and whether, in view of the sums spent by these tenants in stocking their holdings, he will consider the expediency of having the value of the holdings reviewed in order that more equitable rentals may be fixed.

(Answered by Mr. Scott Dickson.) I am not aware of the facts as stated by the hon. Member, and I can only refer him to the Answer given to his previous Question.