§ MR. SHEEHANI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that Mr. Michael Murphy, J.P., the Demesne, Cloyne, landlord of a property at Inchinasingane, near Macroom, county Cork, has served certain of his tenants with debtors' summonses in the Bankruptcy Court recently for arrears of rent; can he state whether negotiations for the purchase of this estate were proceeding for some time, and that the landlord agreed to leave a settlement of the question to arbitration, but subsequently receded from this agreement; will he say whether it is customary for landlords to use the procedure of the Bankruptcy Courts for the recovery of their rents; and can he give the number of cases in which landlords took proceedings in the Bankruptcy Court against their tenants since the passing of the Land Act of 1903.
§ MR. BIRRELLThe Registrar of the Cork local Court of Bankrupcy informs me that in February last debtors' summonses at the suit of Mr. Murphy were served on three tenants for sums of £65, £65, and £55 respectively, being the amounts of judgments of the King's Bench Division in respect of which the Sheriff had made a return of no goods. The Registrar informs me that it is not unusual for landlords to take proceedings in the Bankruptcy Court for the recovery of rent, when the ordinary mode of procedure has failed. I have no information of the number of cases in which such proceedings have been taken in the chief and local Courts of Bankruptcy. The question of sale has not come before the Estates Commissioners and they have no knowledge of any negotiations which may have taken place between the landlord and tenant.
§ CAPTAIN DONELANIs the right,hon. Gentleman aware that this is merely 64 a family dispute and that the tenants referred to are the landlord's brothers?
§ [No Answer was returned.]