MR. O'BRIENasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether it is the case that the Limerick Sub-Commission at their February sittings at Kilmallock disposed of only 30 cases out of 115 listed for hearing, and that the hearing of the remainder, after being in the first instance adjourned to April, has now been further adjourned until the 4th of June; whether he is aware that a great part of this district was under water last winter, and that its appearance in June, when grass will be specially luxuriant, owing to the tenant's shortness of stock to graze it, will be a deceptive criterion of valuation; whether among the applicants, the hearing of whoso claims has been postponed, are the tenantry of General Gascoigne, whose rents have been doubled since the purchase of the property in 1852, although nothing has been spent by the land Lord in improvements, and whether these tenants have now been nearly a year and a half awaiting the adjudication of their claims in the Land Courts, without obtaining any relief from their rents; whether it is the case that in only eight cases were judicial rents registered by consent in the Laud Courts in the county of Limerick for the quarter covered by the last Report of the Irish Land Commissioners; and, whether, in view of this state of things, the Government intend to take any steps to expedite the action of the Court?
§ MR. TREVELYANSir, the Land Commissioners inform me that 50 cases, out of 115 listed for hearing, were disposed of at the Kilmallock sitting, which concluded on the 4th of February. The remaining 65 cases stand adjourned until the 4th of June. I do not think that it would be becoming on my part to make any inquiries or announcement to the House as to the value of lands which are the subject of applications now pending before the Court; but I have full confidence that the Sub-Commissioners will take every proper means to satisfy themselves as to the real merit of the cases before making their decision. The cases of Colonel Gascoigne's tenants are among those adjourned. They have been on the books of the Commission for about 14 months. In the quarter 902 ended the 31st of March, 92 cases of rent fixed by consent in the county of Limerick were notified to the office of the Land Commission. Of the cases remaining undisposed of in the county, it is expected that a considerable proportion will be settled during the circuit which commences to-day.
MR. O'BRIENThe right hon. Gentleman has omitted to answer the con-eluding portions of my Question, or to explain the reason of the adjournment until June.
§ MR. TREVELYANSir, I did not answer with regard to the reasons for the adjournment, because it would have necessitated my receiving an answer from the Land Commissioners; and in these Questions referring to that body, I have to keep myself very strictly to the replies I get; and I feel a certain delicacy in criticizing them, or in asking for additional information, except under special circumstances. I have, however, an interesting fact to state with regard to the progress of the action of the Court, which I have not had an opportunity of stating in previous debates. At the rate at which the Court is at present working the general prospect with regard to the fixing of judicial rents is very much more hopeful than has ever been stated, even from the Treasury Bench. If no fresh cases were put down before the Land Commission, I have every hope to believe that the present cases will be cleared off in 10 or 12 months—certainly in 11 months. If, however, fresh applications come in, at the rate at which they are at present coming in, all the cases—whether those now on the books, or those that will come on during the time the present applications are being disposed of—will be cleared off within 15 months. But what may be called the arrears of the Land Commission will, I believe, be cleared off within 10 or 11 months.
MR. O'BRIENsaid, that, whatever might be the state of affairs in other counties, the Land Commission was doing nothing whatever in Limerick.