§ MR. DELANY (Queen's County, Ossory)To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether, in the proposed distribution of the untenanted land on the Caldbeck estate, Ballacolla, Queen's County, Thomas Cunningham, Ballacolla, has been allotted 20 acres, and a man named Guilfoyle 38 acres; whether he is aware that Cunningham is postmaster in Ballacolla, from which he derives an income of £150 a year, and in addition has a lucrative business and 52 acres of land purchased on another estate, and that Guilfoyle has already 34 acres of land, also purchased out, as well as his emoluments as estate bailiff to Captain Caldbeck; and, if so, can he say who is responsible for allotting such an extent of land to those wealthy men to the exclusion of the claims of a large number of small holders, labourers, and farmers' sons in the district; and if the Estates Commissioners have approved of this proposal.
(Answered by Mr. Birrell.) The Estates Commissioners have not yet approved of a scheme for the allotment of the untenanted land on this estate.
§ MR. DELANYTo ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that the Estates Commissioners' inspector, Mr. Booth, who visited Ballacolla on 29th September last, for the purpose of investigating the claims of those who applied for a portion of the untenanted land on the Caldbeck estate, occupied a room in the house of Thomas Cunningham, who, although postmaster, business man, and large farmer, was also claimant for a share of the untenanted land, and refused to admit the small holders, labourers, or farmers' sons, to the number of twenty, whose right to a portion of untenanted land is acknowledged under the Act of 1905; can he say if this is the usual practice pursued by inspectors on such occasions; and whether the Estates Commissioners are prepared to sanction Mr. Booth's action.
(Answered by Mr. Birrell.) The Estates Commissioners are aware that 449 their inspector occupied a room in Mr. Cunningham's house on the occasion of his visit to the estate in question. The Commissioners see no reason to disapprove of the inspector's action in this respect. It is not the fact that the inspector refused to see the applicants referred to in the Question.