§ MR. GINNELL (Westmeath, N.)To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord- Lieutenant of Ireland if he will ascertain and state in relation to Colonel Malone's Baronstown Estate, Westmeath, the names of the tenant purchasers of uneconomic holdings not exceeding £5 valuation, with the area and valuation of each of these holdings; the names of the tenant purchasers of holdings uneconomic owing to inferiority, though over £5 valuation; the names of persons not within the Land Law Acts who have proposed to purchase grass farms on this estate exceeding 100 acres each, with the area of each of these grass farms; and the Commissioners' reason for not requiring, as a condition 225 precedent to sanctioning the sale of this estate, the inclusion of these grass farms for distribution.
(Answered by Mr. Bryce.) I beg to refer the hon. Member to my Answer to his Question of the 7th instant† in which I stated, on the authority of the Estates Commissioners, that the estate in question does not comprise any untenanted land, that the grass farms on the estate are held under leases or by yearly tenants, and that the Commissioners have no power to compel farms so held to be sold to them as untenanted land. In these circumstances, the Estates Commissioners do not consider that any good purpose would be served by supplying the detailed information asked for in the Question.