§ MR. DELANY (Queen's County, Ossory)To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that a portion of the tenants upon the estate of the Earl of Drogheda, at Rosenallis, have signed agreements to purchase at terms which amount to over twenty-five years purchase, without the bonus; that over one-third of the tenants have refused to purchase at the price; and that the tenants who have signed agreements occupy the most impoverished portion of the estate and have been induced to purchase by the fact that a year's and in some instances a year and a-half's arrears have been added to the purchase price; and whether, under the circumstances, the Estates Commissioners are prepared to sanction the sale.
(Answered by Mr. Walter Long.) Agreements to purchase sixty-eight out of a total of seventy-three holdings on this property have been lodged, the average number of years purchase being 25. 1. The Commissioners have no knowledge of the amount of arrears, if any, added to the purchase money. They are making further inquiry, and have not yet declared the sixty-eight holdings to be. a separate estate.