§ MR. GINNELL (Westmeath, N.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, if he does not favour the consolidation of grass farms in a congested neighbourhood at the public expense, will he ask the Estates Commissioners to refuse to declare the partially congested portion of the Barons town a separate estate, unless Colonel Malone sells the grass farms for the relief of the congestion.
MR. BRYCEI beg to refer the hon. Member to my previous Answers on this subject, in which I have stated, on the authority of the Estates Commissioners, that the grass farms on Colonel Malone's estate are held under leases or by yearly tenants, and that the Commissioners have 69 no power to compel lands so held to be sold to them as untenanted land. I am atone with the, Commissioners in their policy of acquiring; untenanted lands for the enlargement of uneconomic holdings, wherever that may be possible, and it is quite unnecessary that I should ask them to do what they are most anxious to do. If the hon. Member has any new facts which he desires to bring to the notice of the Commissioners I shall be happy to communicate further with them.