§ MR. O'SHEE (Waterford, W.)To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland on what date an originating application for the sale of a portion of the estate of Sir John Nugent Humble, in the county of Waterford, was lodged with the Estates Commissioners; whether he is aware that there is a large area of untenanted land on the estate which the owner does not propose to sell; that a clearance of many tenants off this estate was effected about fifty years ago, and that several tenants were also evicted within the past twenty-five years; and whether, seeing that a portion of the lands more recently evicted was sold by Sir John Nugent Humble to his brother some years before the passing of the Act of 1903, and that a legal question arose at the time as to the right of the owner to sell to his brother in consideration of money to be advanced by the State, and that the greater portion of the more recently evicted land is now unavailable for the reinstatement of the evicted tenants, the Estates Commissioners will decline to deem the lands, the sale of which to existing tenants is now proposed, to be an estate unless the owner also consents to sell to the Commissioners, with a view to distribution to the evicted tenants, a sufficient portion of the lands from which tenants, whose families have since disappeared, were cleared about fifty years ago.
(Answered by Mr. Bryce.) I am informed by the Estates Commissioners that the originating application in respect of the sale of a portion of the estate of Sir John Nugent Humble was lodged with them on the 14th September, 1905. The case has not yet been dealt with by the Commissioners, but they inform me that they will consider 1244 the matters referred to in the Question when dealing with the estate.