§ MR. SLOAN (Belfast, S.)I beg to-ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland if he can state-whether Mr. Thomas McKaig, in the West Division of Lord Shaftesbury's Carrickfergus estate, is a first or second-term tenant and, if a first-term tenant, 1545 why did the Commissioners threaten to exclude his holding unless he signed a purchase agreement at a second-term price within the zones; and if he will state the exact number of tenants in the Greenisland district of the West Division of the said estate, the number who have signed, and the number who have refrained from signing purchase agreements respectively.
§ MR. BIRRELLThe Estates Commissioners inform me that Mr. McKaig is tenant of a holding under judicial agreement, dated 10th January, 1905, and is therefore, a first-term tenant. As regards the exclusion of McKaig from the sale, it is to be said that he has not signed a purchase agreement. The Commissioners have nothing to add to the facts stated in my reply to the hon. Member on 5th instant on this subject. The Commissioners are not aware to what particular portion of the estate the hon. Member refers as the Green-island district of the West Division, and therefore cannot give the information asked for in the concluding part of the Question.