§ MR. HOGAN (Tipperary, N.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland if he is aware that, some time ago, the Estate Commissioners declared the holdings of nine tenants on the estate of the Rev. Marshall Vincent, at Rapla, near Nenagh, in the county Tipperary, to be a separate estate, although they refused on a previous occasion to do so; that, while these nine holdings have been created since 1902, the four old tenants, whose predecessors had been on the estate for generations, are not enabled to purchase their holding; that a condition sought to be imposed by the landlord, when negotiating for sale to one of the four old tenants, was that he should purchase an evicted farm in addition to his own; and can he state the nature of the correspondence and inquiries which caused the Estates Commissioners to change their mind on the question of the sale.
MR. BRYCEThe Estates Commissioners inform me that the holdings referred to, having been declared by them to be an "estate," were sold to and vested in the purchasing tenants on August 4th, 1904. The tenancies were created in 1902 with the object of enlarging the holdings in the occupation of the purchasing tenants. The vendor had applied that certain of the lands in his possession should be excluded from the sale, and the Commissioners, before finally declaring the lauds sold to be an "estate," perused the correspondence which had passed between the vendor's solicitor and the tenants' solicitor, and came to the conclusion that the application of the vendor was reasonable. I 489 have no further information in the matter.