§ MR. HEALYasked the First Lord of the Treasury, Whether his attention has been drawn to the following facts, that, on a sub-tenant, R. Driscoll, to a middleman, John Hall, whose rent is £10 10s., being 30s. more than Hall pays his own landlord for twice the acreage held by Driscoll, going into court at Bantry to get a fair rent fixed, the Sub-Commission dismissed the case on a technical legal point without hearing evidence as to value or sending a court valuer; that Driscoll having appealed, the Head Commission reversed this decision, but without going into evidence or sending a court valuer they fixed a judicial rent leaving the old rent, £12, 2, unaltered; that so fixing it the Head Commissioners were in absolute ignorance of the facts connected with the holding, as neither they nor the Sub-Commission went into evidence or sent a valuer; that Driscoll is now bound for fifteen years, without appeal, to pay Hall a rent of 30s. per annum over the amount which the middleman gives his own landlord for Driscoll's lands and for as much again in his own cul- 2105 tivation; and, if he can suggest any remedy for the action of the Land Com. missioners?
§ MR. TREVELYANSir, my right hon. Friend (Mr. Gladstone) asks me to answer this Question. I think the hon. Member for Monagham (Mr. Healy) can hardly have expected an answer from any one else, because I am practically the channel through which all information from the Land Commission comes.
§ MR. HEALYI desired, in asking the Question as I did, to let the Prime Minister see how his Land Act in Ireland has been carried out.
§ MR. TREVELYANWhen Questions of this sort are put to the Prime Minister, he examines them, to ascertain whether it is a Question he should answer. The Land Commissioners inform me that they decided this case, having heard the evidence of the tenant and that produced for the landlord, and they came to the conclusion which they considered just, having regard to all the circumstances of the case. They also state, with regard to the contention in the Question, that they consider it would be inconsistent with their duty to make a statement in reply to a Question in Parliament as to the grounds of their judicial decision.
§ MR. HEALYMr. Speaker, the statement of the Land Commissioners is absolutely untrue, and I will call attention to this case at an early date. Their conduct is disgraceful in the matter. [Cries of "Order, order!"]
§ MR. SPEAKERI must point out to the hon. Member that if he applies these epithets to the statement of the right hon. Gentleman, he knows very well they are entirely out of Order.
§ MR. HEALYI did not apply them to the statement of the right hon. Gentleman. I applied them to the statement of the Land Commissioners.