§ MR. SHEEHAN (Cork County, Mid.)To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether any decision has yet been arrived at by the Estates Commissioners on the claims of the three tenants excluded from the purchase on the estate of Sir George Colthurst, viz., Messrs. Forrest, Henderson, and Byrne, on the alleged ground that they were demesne tenants; have the Commissioners received a copy of a valuation made in the case of Mr. Henderson in 1890 by Mr. Richard Martin, valuer for the landlord; was this valuation at the instance of the landlord and on the assumption that Mr. Henderson's holding was a purely agricultural one; is it a fact that Mr. Henderson has been paying rent since 1890 on the basis of Mr. Martin's valuation; and, having regard to the fact that these three tenants and their predecessors have been paying rent for generations for the farms held by them and used by them as agricultural tenancies, will he urge upon the Estates Commissioners the desirability of having them admitted to purchase on the same terms as the other tenants.
(Answered by Mr. Birrell.) The Estates Commissioners have made inquiries into the cases of Messrs. Forrest, Henderson, and Byrne, who occupy, as yearly tenants, certain land in the Ardrum demesne of Sir George Colthurst. The vendor has 1201 intimated his intention of renovating the buildings and settling his eldest son in what was for many years the residence of the Colthurst family. He is, therefore, unwilling to sell to these three tenants, and the Commissioners do not propose to refuse to declare the other holdings, some hundreds in number, to be a separate estate because the vendor is unwilling, on what would appear to be reasonable grounds, to sell these three holdings in his demesne to yearly tenants. The Commissioners have received from the hon. Member a copy of the valuation of Mr. Martin referred to, but they have no information as to the circumstances in which it was made.