§ MR. GINNELL (Westmeath, N.)To ask the Secretary to the Treasury if he will state the present condition of the Guarantee Fund under the Irish Land Purchase Acts, showing the amount drawn to make good defaults under the Act of 1903, the amounts withheld from several counties and from the whole of Ireland out of the normal Probate Duty and agricultural grants, which must now be added to local rates; is the Treasury aware that in this way people, not parties to the purchase transactions, are contributing to the payment of prices; and can he find in the practice of the Treasury any precedent or analogy for the present system of land purchase.
(Answered by Mr. Runciman.) The following Statement shows the net amounts drawn under the Land Purchase Act of 1903 from the Guarantee Fund for each county and the whole of Ireland, for the period from the commencement at 1st November, 1903, to 31st January, 1907:—
| County. | Net amount drawn in respect of. | Total. | |
| Arrears of Annuities. | Insufficiency of Income. | ||
| £ | £ | £ | |
| Fermanagh | 92 | 1,328 | 1,420 |
| Galway | 304 | 3,321 | 3,625 |
| Kerry | 130 | 632 | 762 |
| Kildare | 944 | 7,714 | 8,658 |
| Kilkenny | 701 | 4,045 | 4,746 |
| King's | 321 | 1,077 | 1,398 |
| Leitrim | 97 | 252 | 349 |
| Limerick | 1,168 | 3,017 | 4,185 |
| Londonderry | 66 | 1,296 | 1,362 |
| Longford | 145 | 1,014 | 1,159 |
| Louth | 60 | 301 | 361 |
| Mayo | 64 | 2,024 | 2,088 |
| Meath | 196 | 3,733 | 3,929 |
| Monaghan | 128 | 419 | 547 |
| Queen's | 164 | 1,332 | 1,496 |
| Roscommon | 702 | 4,104 | 4,806 |
| Sligo | 62 | 1,271 | 1,333 |
| Tipperary, North | 336 | 768 | 1,104 |
| ” South | 502 | 2,097 | 2,599 |
| Tyrone | 290 | 1,925 | 2,215 |
| Waterford | 280 | 670 | 950 |
| Westmeath | 262 | 1,961 | 2,223 |
| Wexford | 200 | 2,262 | 2,462 |
| Wicklow | 157 | 2,906 | 3,063 |
| 9,119 | 61,877 | 70,996 |
§ As regards the allocation of the sums so drawn between the Death Duty Grant and the Agricultural Grant, the hon. Member is referred to the Answer given by my right hon. friend the Chief Secretary on the 16th instant;† but I should point out that the figures given by him include sums drawn under previous Land Acts as well as under the Act of 1903. In the last part of the Question the hon. Member is criticising the policy of the Act of 1903 which the Treasury has no power to alter.