§ MR. GINNELLI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland if he will state why the Estates Commissioners do not exercise 88 in all cases for the protection of the tenant's occupation, interest, and improvements, the power which it was held they possessed and had rightly exercised in the Blake-Foster case, to disallow a price as excessive, notwithstanding the collusion of landlord and tenants in support of the agreements.
MR. BRYCEI am informed by the Estates Commissioners that the decision in the Blake-Foster case did not turn on the question whether the tenant's occupation, interest, and improvements were included in the purchase money of the holdings, but on the question whether the property was fit to be declared an estate for the purposes of the Act, having regard to the character of the holdings and the price at which it was agreed that they were to be sold. The Estates Commissioners intend to exercise the discretion exercised in that case in all further cases of a similar character.