§ MR. GIBSONasked why, from the Return just issued, showing the number of cases of eviction in Ireland during November and December, 1881, and January, February, and March, 1882, for non-payment of rent, the number of those re-admitted as caretakers had not been given?
§ MR. DILLONasked whether it was not a well-known practice in Ireland to admit a great number of evicted tenants as caretakers, and then evict them at the end of six months, as a matter of course, at the ordinary Petty Sessions?
§ MR. MACFARLANEasked whether it was not a fact that tenants taking the position of caretakers forfeited the right of redemption?
§ THE ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. W. M. JOHNSON),in reply, said, the object of the Return was to show the tenants whose period of redemption was still running, and who would be entitled, as a matter of right and law, on payment of the amount for which they had been evicted, to be reinstated as tenants. To insert in the Returns the number of those re-admitted as caretakers would be inapplicable to that object, as caretakers were merely the servants of the owners. The fact of their being caretakers did not affect their position as tenants, or their power to redeem within the time specified, and he was not at all prepared to say that landlords always—or even as a rule—evicted the caretakers at the end of six months.