§ MR. DUFFYTo ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that John Duffy Attymon, county Gal way, a tenant on the Dunsandle Estate, signed an agreement to purchase his holding at the time the sale of the property took place; that the agreement specified that the annual rent for the purpose of purchase would be £14 1120 per year; and that the Commissioners now threaten to nullify the agreement and increase the rent from £14 to £16 a year within fourteen days unless the tenant surrenders to them a portion of his land; and whether, seeing that the disputed land was before the County Court and the Court of Assizes, presided over by Lord Justice Holmes, who gave a verdict and costs in favour of Mr. Duffy, he will explain why the Estates Commissioners threaten this tenant with a deprivation of his rights; and by what right or authority do they threaten to increase his rent from £14, the sum mentioned in the agreement, to £16.
(Answered by Mr. Bryce.) The Estates Commissioners inform me that John Duffy signed an undertaking to purchase his holding, comprising 43½ acres held at a rent of £16, for the sum of £336. The price at which the Commissioners were prepared to sell to Duffy was fixed at this low sum on condition that a passage through the holding for other purchasers should be reserved. Duffy has refused to allow this passage to be used, and on April 24th last the Commissioners informed him that if he should persist in this refusal they might decline to sell the holding to him, in which case he would remain tenant at the rent of £16.