§ MR. SEAGER HUNT (Marylebone, W.)asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether 253 the Commissioners of Tithe Rent Charge are pressing the landowners in Ireland for payment of Tithes, even when no rent for the period claimed has been received; whether proceedings for the appointment of a receiver have been threatened in the case of Mr. Penn Gaskell, of Shanagarry, county Cork, for Tithes due up to May 1886, when the rents on his estate have only been paid up to March 1885, and those only upon a reduction of twenty-five per cent, upon the rents already reduced to the extent of fifteen per cent. making a total reduction of, say, forty per cent.; whether the Tithe Commissioners will be instructed to make a reduction corresponding to the reduction of rent; and, whether the Government will undertake to repeal the Act of 1872, 35 and 36 Vic. c. 90, so that a re-valuation fixed on the average price of corn for the previous seven years may be ready?
§ THE PRESIDENT OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD (Mr. STANSFELD) (Halifax)(who replied) said: The Land Commissioners state that they never press for the payment of tithe rent-charge if they are satisfied that no rent has been received, and that the reason for non-payment is not—what is often the case—that other claims ranking after theirs have been paid, leaving their prior claim unpaid. In the case of Mr. Penn Gaskell, of Shanagarry, county Cork, he owed in May last three half-years' rent-charge, and offered to pay one. The Commissioners asked for the payment of a year's charge, which was actually due on November 1, 1885. Mr. Penn Gaskell replied by asking for time until July 1 next, and his application was granted. The Commissioners have no power to make a reduction in the amount due to them.