§ MR. SWIFT MACNEILLI beg to; ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieu tenant of Ireland whether he is aware that the tenants in the townland of Lissahully, in Killeen, county Donegal, signed purchase agreements in March, 1905, with the Congested Districts Board of their holdings on terms of about twenty-seven years purchase of what the Board estimated to be the fair letting value of the lands, and were informed that this purchase annuity would become payable within six weeks or two months, during which period they would have to pay £4 per cent, interest on their purchase money; whether he is aware that these tenants, notwithstanding this assurance, have, since March, 1905, till the present time, been compelled to pay £4 per cent, on the purchase money which amounts to 4s. 6d. in the pound more than they were informed their purchase annuity would be, while some of these tenants who were tenant purchasers of small farms in the neighbourhood gave up their farms on the strength of the promises made by the Congested Districts Board; and whether, having regard to the hardship and expense sustained by these tenants through the failure of the Congested Districts Board to fulfil 71 their undertaking that the purchase annuity of £3 5s. per cent, would become payable within six months of the signing of the purchase agreements, and that in some cases the interest of £4 per cent, per annum would not be paid for any period however short, what are the steps which it is proposed to take to relieve them from this burden, and to give them compensation for the time during which it was borne in violation of the under taking given by the Congested Districts Board.
MR. BRYCEI am informed that the facts are generally as stated, but with this substantial exception, namely, that no officer of the Congested Districts Board informed the tenants that the 4 per cent, interest would only be pay able for the short time mentioned. The purchase agreements were executed by the tenant purchasers before a Commissioner of Oaths who is bound to see that the tenant understands the conditions of the purchase agreement. This agreement expressly states that 4 per cent, interest on the purchase price shall be paid in lieu of rent from the date of execution of agreement to the date on which the advance of purchase money applied for may be made to the Congested Districts Board by the Land Commission. The delay in vesting the holdings in the tenants appears to have been caused by legal difficulties which arose in connection with the redemption of a head rent payable out of the lands, but the solicitor reports that he hopes that the matter will soon be completed. There is no doubt that this delay was not anticipated at the time, and under the circumstances the matter will be brought before the Board at their next meeting with a view of considering whether a reduction from 4 per cent, to 3¼ per cent, interest should be given to the tenants.