§ MR. GLENDINNING (Antrim, N.)To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland what is the number of holdings bought out under the several Land Purchase Acts in the Coleraine Poor Law Union; the number bought out in the Ballymoney Poor Law Union, under the same Acts; and the aggregate amount of such purchases in these two unions.
(Answered by Mr. Bryce.) The Land Commission records of the sale of holdings under the Land Purchase Acts, which include all purchase legislation from The Landlord and Tenant Act, 1870, down to the Act of 1903, have always been kept by counties and not by poor law unions, and Returns of the number of holdings sold in each county are annually published. I understand that to prepare such a Return as is suggested would withdraw men from their ordinary duties and would take a long time, and that the preparation of such a Return would involve a great amount of work, not only in the Land Commission, but also in other departments. In the circumstances I fear that the importance of the suggested Return is hardly sufficient to justify the amount of extra labour that would be involved in its preparation.
§ MR. GLENDINNINGTO ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether, in the case of probate of a farm which had been bought out from the landlord, the annuity to the Government could be deducted from the probate value when under £500; and, if not, what is the scale which the Inland Revenue has adopted in such cases.
(Answered by Mr. Asquith.) In the case of land purchased under the Land Purchase Acts, the redemption value of the annuity payable to the Land Com- 14 mission constitutes a legitimate deduction from the gross value of the land for the purpose of ascertaining the value on which estate duty is payable. If the nett value so ascertained should fall below £500, estate duty would be chargeable at the rate of 1 per cent., in the event of the purchase having been made by the deceased himself, but at the fixed rate of 50s. (or 30s. if the value were under £300) in the event of the purchase having been made by a predecessor in title to the deceased.