§ Mr. FETHERSTONHAUGHasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland, whether, prior to the Irish Land Bill, 1909, there was any British legislative precedent for the compulsory purchase of land leaving the dispossessed owners to bear their costs of making title to the lands of which they had been deprived; was he aware that in the case of a small estate with a difficult title, or in the case of the acquisition of a small part of a large estate, the costs of making title would in some cases exceed the purchase money, as-had happened in cases under the Labourers Acts; and would he consider the introduction of a amendment in his Bill whereby a vendor by compulsion would be indemnified by the Land Commission against all costs of sale unless caused by some fault or neglect of such vendor?
§ The CHIEF SECRETARY for IRELAND (Mr. Birrell)British legislative precedents with regard to the landlords' costs in cases of compulsory sale can hardly in fairness be held applicable to Irish land sale and purchase since in the latter cases a bonus is given direct to the landlord, although usually a limited owner. To give both costs and bonus in cases of compulsion would obviously be giving an unfair advantage to compulsion over voluntary sale. I may add that the purchase of a few small plots for labourers' cottages bears no analogy to the sale of an estate under the Land Purchase Acts, and I may also point out that there is no bonus in the case of purchases under the Labourers Acts.