§ MR. JAMES O'KELLYTo ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland if he can state the reason why the agreement of the tenants to purchase their holdings on the estate of Arthur M. O'Connor, Esq., the Palace, Elphin, county Roscommon, fell through after the matter had been in the hands of the Commissioners for three and a half years; and whether there is any prospect of the question of the sale and purchase of the estate being reopened.
(Answered by Mr. Cherry.) In the case of the estate referred to in the Question, the Estates Commissioners were of opinion that the turbary in the owner's hands should be divided amongst the tenants who required the same. To this course the owner would not agree. Moreover, the Commissioners refused to make the advances applied for certain of the cases, such advances being in excess of the amounts for which the holdings would, in the Commissioners opinion, afford security, and the owner declined to sell the holdings at the sums which the Commissioners were prepared to advance. The Commissioners accordingly refused to declare the lands to be an estate, and the agreements for purchase were dismissed. The Commissioners are not aware whether the owner intends to approach them with a view to reopening the question of the sale of his estate.