§ MR. DELANY (Queen's County, Ossory)To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that five tenants on the estate of Mrs. Adair, Mountmellick, Queen's County, have signed agreements to purchase their holdings at twenty-three years purchase, with bonus added, that the greater portion of the same estate was sold to the tenants eleven years ago at seventeen years purchase, and that the latter tenant purchasers have received one decadal reduction of 14 per cent., and are entitled to two more; and can he say what is the cause of the rise in price under the Act of 1903; and whether the Government propose introducing legislation to prevent such prices being demanded from the Irish tenant purchasers.
(Answered by Mr. Bryce.) I am informed by the Estates Commissioners that the facts are substantially as stated in the first part of the Question. I could not, within the limits of an Answer, attempt to enter upon a speculation as to the possible cause or causes of the rise in price. As I have already repeatedly stated, the Government are 595 carefully watching the operations of the Land Purchase Acts, with the object of deciding whether amending legislation may be desirable, and I am not at present prepared to add anything to that statement.