§ MR. SEXTONasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether it is the fact that General Tisdal, investigator under the Arrears Act, heard a case at Tubbercurry, county Sligo, on Friday last, in which a tenant named Anthony Galeagher, claiming the benefit of the Act, and holding a tenancy the rents of which were payable every March and September, produced receipts dated 23rd May 1881 and 20th February 1882, each for a half year's rent, and claimed that these payments should be held to be in satisfaction for the rent of 1881, but the investigator, upon the statement of the agent, that the March rent was not called in until September, and therefore that rent paid before September 1881 could not satisfy the March gale, decided that there was upon the estate what he termed "a five months' hanging gale;" whether this decision is contrary to the instructions issued by the Land Commission to the investigators, and whether a gale "hanging" for a term less than a half year falls under the provisions of the Act; or, if so, whether it is open to an investigator to declare that a "hanging gale" exists in every case in which the rent is not called in upon the precise day on which it accrues due; whether General Tisdal, in the case in question, heard the tenant's evidence upon oath, but took the evidence of the agent without swearing him, and did not cause the oath to be administered to him until a clergyman informed him that public opinion would be brought to bear upon his conduct; who recommended General Tisdal for the office of investigator, and what his qualifications are; and, whether notice will be taken of his ruling in the case of Anthony Galeagher, and his omission to administer the oath impartially to witnesses before him?
§ MR. TREVELYANThis Question has been referred by the Land Commissioners to General Tisdal for report with 1537 regard to the decision referred to; but his reply has not yet reached me. The Land Commissioners inform me that they appointed General Tisdal an investigator on their personal knowledge of his fitness for the office. According to the Treasury Regulations, persons who have been officers in the Army or Navy are among those qualified to act as investigators.