§ Mr. HAMMOND (Carlow)To ask the Secretary to the Treasury when regulations will be made to render Section 2 of The Purchase of Land (Ireland) Act, 1891, effective.
(Answered by Mr. Runciman.) I may observe that the section in question has, of course, no application to advances under The Irish Land Act. 1903, but only to advances under the earlier Land Acts made in the form of Guaranteed Land Stock. So far as regards the payment of one-quarter of the annuity in stock, I find, after communication with the Departments administering the Acts, that it would be impracticable to allow payment to be made in this way. It appears that the tenant-purchaser who benefited by paying the one-quarter in stock would obtain that benefit at the expense of other tenant-purchasers who paid in cash. The amount of stock obtainable is too small to enable all tenant-purchasers to pay the one-quarter in stock, and it would not be fair to allow the advantage to a few. So far as regards the redemption of the annuity or a part thereof, while it is not possible to make any rule that would be operative for the purpose of enabling the transfer of stock to be made through the Post Office Savings Bank, the National Debt Commissioners are prepared to accept, and have in fact accepted, Guaranteed Land
† See (4) Debates, clxxv., 1596.1421 Stock when tendered to them. No new rule is required for this purpose, and in the circumstances the Treasury does not propose to issue any rule under the section referred to.