§ MR. GINNELLI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, since it is not the policy of the present Government to allow the value of tenancies, under the Land Act of 1881, to be confiscated in transactions under the Land Act of 1903, and the Government are willing to have this question raised for judicial decision, will he explain why it has not been so raised in any one of the cases in which tenants have refused to sign purchase agreements on the ground of excessive price.
MR. BRYCEThe Estates Commissioners inform me that in the case supposed by the hon. Member no concrete question of law as to the equity of the price agreed upon could arise, seeing that in the case as supposed by him it is assumed that no price has been agreed upon. It would, in the Commissioners' opinion, be impossible to refer to the Judicial Commissioners as a question of law the reasonableness or otherwise of a tenant's refusal to sign an agreement to purchase his holding.