§ Mr. GINNELLasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland if he will say in how many cases of land purchase annuitants and payers of interest in lieu of rent, respectively, in default at 1st June, 1909, have legal proceedings been instituted for the recovery of arrears; and what is the total number of each class proceeded against from 1st November, 1903, to the latest date for which figures are obtainable?
§ The CHIEF SECRETARY for IRELAND (Mr. Birrell)No proceedings have yet been taken against the persons who are in arrear with instalments of annuities due 1st June last or with interest in lieu of rent due 1st May last, but the Land Commission inform me that proceedings will shortly be taken in such cases. The information asked for in the concluding portion of the question could not be ob- 1765 tained without imposing undue labour on the staff of the Land Commission, but I would refer the hon. Member to pages 8 and 9 of the Annual Report of the Land Commission, recently presented to Parliament, for full information as to the collection of instalments and interest in lieu of rent.
§ Mr. GINNELLasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland, having regard to the check imposed upon efficient and productive farming in Ireland by exacting, by process of law, annuities from purchasers unable to pay, except with borrowed money, whether he will submit to the House the reasoned opinion of the Irish Land Commission as to the advisability of discontinuing legal proceedings now pending for the recovery of annuities and of interest in lieu of rent, remitting to the defaulters one year's payment, or postponing its collection to the end of the term of repayment, and not making any deduction from or charge upon the Development Grant or the resources of local bodies in respect of the cases so dealt with?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe Land Commission have no reason to believe that purchasers who are proceeded against for instalments of annuities are unable to pay the amounts due except with borrowed money. The answer to the remainder of the question is in the negative.
§ Mr. GINNELLasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland whether he is aware that tenant purchasers of land in Ireland under the Acts prior to 1903, while advances were limited to the value ascertained by official inspection, generally paid their annuities with regularity, and that the increase in the number of cases in default and the under stocking and inefficient working of the holdings in those cases arise from real inability to pay the prices increased, by the later Act having generally discontinued inspection and removed value as the limit of the advance; whether, when settling the proposals of the present Land Bill increasing the burdens of future purchasers, the Government had in mind this continued increase of defaulters, the declared purpose of landlords to recoup themselves by increased prices for any disadvantage imposed upon them by the Bill, and the consequent danger of insolvency and repudiation; and if he will state by what means the Estates Commissioners propose to prevent these consequences?
§ Mr. BIRRELLTable 164 in the Appendix to the Annual Report of the Irish Land Commission, recently presented to Parliament, gives the number of cases in which two or more half-yearly instalments, which had become due prior to 31st March last, were still unpaid on 1st July. The Table shows that there were 120 such cases among 46,800 purchasers under the Acts of 1891 and 1896, and only 94 cases among the 44,773 purchasers under the Act of 1903 to whom advances had been made up to the end of 1907. The hon. Member is therefore mistaken in supposing that the number of purchasers in arrear has increased under the Act of 1903.
§ Mr. GINNELLasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland if he will say what kind of inquiry, if any, is held into the solvency of purchasing-tenants in Ireland in cases within the zones, in cases outside the zones, in direct sales, and in sales through the Commissioners, respectively, before advances are made; whether any examination is made or record kept of cases in which in the preliminary negotiations tenants have been forced to borrow money from banks or money lenders to pay the vendor, as a condition precedent to being allowed to sign purchase agreements; and if he can say or estimate how many of those whose annuities and interest in lieu of rent, respectively, are now in arrear, and whose farms are inadequately stocked and inefficiently worked in consequence of the burden of interest they are still paying for money so borrowed, have been treated in this manner?
§ Mr. BIRRELLI would refer the hon. Member to the instructions to inspectors issued by the Estates Commissioners on 9th March, 1906, in accordance with regulations made by the Lord Lieutenant and presented to Parliament. These instructions set out the various matters on which the Commissioners' inspectors are required to report. The answer to the concluding portion of the question is in the negative.