§ MR. M'CARTANI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware of the dissatisfaction among the farmers of the Counties of Down and Antrim, who have upwards of two years ago served notices to have fair rents fixed, and who, pending the hearing of their applications, are now obliged to pay the old rack rents; whether the Sub-Commissioners appointed for Down and Antrim were some time ago taken away from their work there, and sent to another part of Ireland; whether anything has been 1376 since done in these counties to give to the tenants the benefits conferred upon them by the Land Acts; and, whether, considering the inability of the tenants to pay the old rents, and the number of ejectment decrees already obtained against them, he will give directions to have the Sub-Commissioners sent back to these counties without delay?
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURThe Land Commissioners report that all applications to fix fair rents in the Counties of Down and Antrim have been disposed of up to the end of the year 1887. In April last the Commissioners found it necessary to move the Sub-Commission which had been working in the counties in question to the Counties of Mayo and Sligo, in order that the undisposed of cases in those districts might be brought up to a level date. According to the present arrangements a Sub-Commission will commence the hearing of the cases from the Counties of Down and Antrim on the 7th of October next. In the case of any tenant proceeded against for the old rent, it is open to him to apply to the Court for a stay of execution or other order as to the Court may seem fit, and where the tenant pays at the old rate he is entitled to make a future deduction for the difference between such payment and any reduced rate at which the judicial rent may be fixed.