§ CAPTAIN DONELAN (Cork, E.)To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether, in view of the action taken by various county councils and other representative public bodies in Ireland in the direction of reafforestation, and the feeling in Ireland on the subject, measures will be adopted for the purpose of preventing Irish landlords from cutting down the standing timber on their properties when selling to their tenants under the Land Purchase Act of 1903.
(Answered by Mr. Walter Long.) The Land Commissioners have no jurisdiction such as is suggested, nor are they aware that timber has been cut down by landlords in anticipation of sales. In the case of tenant-purchasers, however, the Commissioners possess the ordinary legal rights of mortgagees to restrain the purchasers from committing waste of the nature indicated, and thereby depreciating the security.