§ Mr. GINNELLasked the Chief Secretary if he will ask the Estates Commissioners to enhance their Report now in preparation with a table showing for each county the number of holdings of less than £5 valuation and the number of holdings of less than £10 valuation purchased or agreed to be purchased under each and all of the Land Purchase Acts, and the amount of untenanted and nonresidential land in the county still undistributed?
§ Mr. BIRRELLI have communicated with the Estates Commissioners, who inform me that they are unable to comply with the request of the hon. Member. They have not got the information asked for in the concluding part of the question and their statistical records do not classify holdings according to their poor law valuation. The poor law valuation 529W of each holding is, however, given where available in the monthly Returns of advances which are presented to Parliament.
§ Mr. LONSDALEasked the Chief Secretary if he will state what are the properties with respect to which representations were made by the Government during the past three years to the Estates Commissioners, suggesting either acceleration of purchase proceedings or intervention with a view to settlement of disputes arising out of the terms and conditions of purchase; were such representations communicated in writing in every case to the Commissioners; and will he indicate the cases in which intervention has been followed by good results, and what were the results attained in the remaining cases?
§ Mr. BIRRELLRepresentations as to the existence of differences on estates between landlords and tenants have been made to the Estates Commissioners, both orally and in writing. Good results have followed in several cases, but it is not desirable in the public interest that the representations, or the results of the Commissioners' action in each case should be stated.
§ Mr. LONSDALEasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland whether he will state by whom reports were furnished to the Government upon which representations were addressed to the Estates Commissioners in the past three years leading to the acceleration of purchase proceedings or intervention in the settlement of disputes arising out of the terms of purchase; and whether these reports disclosed the existence of illegal combinations against owners or the commission of overt acts of intimidation and crime in furtherance of such combinations; and, if not, will he state what was the substance of the reports?
§ Mr. BIRRELLIt would be impossible to state the various sources of information, all of a confidential character, on which such representations were based, or to indicate the substance of the confidential reports received.