§ 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 Gallagher, 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 provision 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 Gallagher, and his omission to administer the oath impartially to witnesses before him?
§ MR. TREVELYANSir, the Land Commissioners have sent me a Report from General Tisdal in reference to this question, in which he says that he en- 1720 tered in his notes that in the case of Anthony Gallagher the rent of 1881 had not been paid, inasmuch as the ordinary course of dealing on this estate with regard to payments of rent was stated to be that the March rent accrued due on the 1st of September following, and the September rent on the 1st of March following. General Tisdal states that he did not think it necessary to swear the agent as to the custom of the hanging gale on the estate while he was arguing the case on the examination of the tenant; and he believed, to the best of his recollection, the tenant did not deny the agent's statement as to the custom on the estate. The Land Commissioners had not received General Tisdal's official Report on the case when sending me this letter, and they are unwilling to express any opinion as to whether or not his decision was right until the question comes judicially before them.
§ MR. SEXTONasked whether the right hon. Gentleman would endeavour to ascertain whether, when a gale of rent was payable before the next gale was due, it was or was not a hanging gale?
§ MR. TREVELYANThe proper way to decide the question as to the hanging gale, raised by the hon. Member, is by a decision of the Land Commissioners on a cardinal case such as this, and I am quite alive to the importance of such decision being given as soon as possible.