§ VISCOUNT GALWAYasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether there is any foundation for the statement that Mr. William 1172 Gray, a Sub-Commissioner under the Land Act, 1881, assisted by his colleague, Mr. Sproute, another tenant farmer, recently reduced the rent of a man, by name Galbraith Hamilton, occupying a farm of fifty-seven acres, from £41 7s. 9d. to £30; and, further, whether it is true that the said Galbraith Hamilton, about a twelvemonth before the decision in question, viz. in March 1883, actually paid the outgoing tenant a sum equivalent to upwards of forty-two years' purchase for his interest in the holding in question, subject to a rent of £41 7s. 9d.?
§ MR. TREVELYANThe Land Commissioners inform me that in this case the Sub-Commission, of which Mr. Gray is a member, reduced the rent from £41 7s. 9d. to £30. A good many other Sub-Commissions have made reductions as large. An application for a rehearing before the Land Commissioners is pending. The Land Commissioners have no official knowledge of the amount paid by the present tenant to the outgoing tenant for the interest in his holding.
§ MR. BRODRICKIs it true that Mr. Gray's district has been changed, and that he is now to operate in the South of Ireland?
§ MR. TREVELYANI have not heard anything about it?