§ MR. GINNELL (Westmeath, N.)To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland it, in view of discussion on the new Land Bill, be will inform the House what was the average number of years purchase of rent paid in County Kildare by tenants purchasing subject to official inspection under the Purchase Acts prior to that of 1903; the 225 amount the Leinster estate sold under the latter Act would have realised if sold in 1900 at the former average; the estimated deductions to which that amount would then have been subject in respect of payment in stock at the market price in 1900, law costs, stamp duties, and other expenses as in a normal case, and the estimated net sum the owner would have received from the sale; the amounts the owner gained by selling under the Act of 1903, in price, in bonus, in getting paid in cash instead of stock in freedom from law costs, from stamp duty, and otherwise, and the estimated total cash advantage to the vendor on the actual sale as compared with a sale at the previous average price in the county under official inspection; the aggregate amount of principal and interest respectively which the tenant purchasers would have had to pay at the previous average price in the county had they bought in 1900 and the term run its normal course; the increase of principal and of interest respectively caused by the Act of 1903; the total cash loss to the purchasers as compared with purchase under the earlier Acts; and the total additional loss sustained by the ratepayers of the county by deductions made since 1903 in respect of land purchase from funds which would otherwise have been available for local purposes.
(Answered by Mr. Birrell.) I cannot undertake to answer these hypothetical Questions.