§ Mr. GINNELLasked the Chief Secretary if he would state the number of cases in which sales of land under the Land Purchase Acts were completed in January and February, 1910, compared with the number of cases in which sales were completed in January and February of the three preceding years?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe Estates Commissioners inform me that the number of holdings vested in the case of direct sales in January and February of each of the years mentioned was as follows: In 1907, 1,255; in 1908, 1,723; last year, 2,357; and this year, 2,819.
§ Mr. GINNELLasked how tenants of uneconomic holdings can obtain relief under the Land Act of 1909 from the Estates Commissioners or Congested Districts Board, according to the county in which they were situate, in the common case of the sale of an estate being kept in suspense by the vendor in order to force such tenants by exhausting their resources to sign improvident terms, while untenanted land on the same estate which should be used to enlarge their holdings was applied to other purposes?
§ Mr. BIRRELLIf the hon. Member will give me the particulars of the cases which be has in his mind, I will endeavour to obtain the information which he requires, but I cannot lay down any general rule on the subject.
§ Mr. HACKETTasked what steps the Estates Commissioners propose taking to distribute the land of Adamstown, Temple-more, now in their possession; and when they propose to distribute them?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe Estates Commissioners inform me that the lands have been let temporarily up to November next. No scheme has yet been made for their final allotment.
§ Mr. O'KELLYasked whether the Chief Secretary's attention had been called to an agreement to purchase the non-residential grazing ranch, known on the Ordnance map as Clooneen, Hartland, the estate of Maurice M'Causland, Esquire, Drenagh, Limavady, County Derry, held under judicial lease by William J. Walpole, Castlenode, Strokes-town; whether the Estates Commissioners were aware that the applicant for purchase was the wife of the grazier, William J. Walpole, who had exhausted his borrowing powers in purchasing his residential farm at Castlenode, containing 600 Irish acres; whether he was aware that the Clooneen Hartland ranch contained about 350 Irish acres, and was the only land available in the district for dealing with the question of congestion; whether the Congested Districts Board would use their influence with the Estates Commissioners to prevent the confirmation of the proposed sale, and so defeat an attempt to render impossible the relief of congestion in this locality; whether he was aware that about 30 or 40 uneconomic landholders, whose valuation was from £2 to £5, live in the district; and whether he would use his influence with the Estates Commissioners to secure that this Clooneen Hartland ranch should be reserved for distribution among the small landholders of the district?
§ Mr. BIRRELLI have nothing at present to add to my reply to the question asked by the hon. Member on the 8th instant.
§ Mr. WILLIAM O'BRIENasked what steps, if any, the Estates Commissioners had taken to reinstate in her old holding or otherwise provide for Widow Sammon, 1614 of Carrowkennedy, Westport, whose eviction in 1878 was the immediate cause for the foundation of the United Irish League?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe Estates Commissioners inform me that Mrs. Sammon's former holding is in the occupation of another tenant. They have published in the "Dublin Gazette" a notice of their intention to acquire certain untenanted lands on the estate, compulsorily, under the Evicted Tenants Act, and propose to provide Mrs. Sammon with a holding on these lands, if ultimately acquired.
§ Mr. WILLIAM O'BRIENThat is exactly the same answer I have been receiving for the last five years from the right hon. Gentleman and his predecessor. I ask the right hon. Gentleman if he will kindly look into this particular case for himself and see whether after 15 years something more substantial can be given than promises, seeing that this case was one of the direct causes of the Land Purchase Acts?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe Estates Commissioners cannot do more than acquire land compulsorily on this estate, and having done so this lady with her historic connection will receive the earliest attention.
§ Mr. WILLIAM O'BRIENThe operation has already taken place.
§ Mr. SPEAKERThe hon. Member is not entitled to argue the case.