§ MR. ARTHUR ARNOLD (for Mr. CHARLES RUSSELL)asked Mr. Solicitor General for Ireland, Whether it has come to his knowledge that, in many parts of Ireland, landlords have prevented tenants going to the Court to have a fair rent fixed by threatening to deprive them, if they did so, of the right of turbary or the right to take seaweed, which they then enjoyed, in connection with their holdings, or by threatening to charge them increased payments for the exercise of such rights; whether it is a fact that, where tenants have gone into Court to have a fair rent fixed, landlords have recouped themselves wholly or in part for the reductions effected in rent by increased charge for the exercise of such rights; and, whether he will inform himself fully of the facts (by referring to the Land Commissioners, or otherwise), and lay them before the Government with a view to considering what steps can be taken to prevent the objects of the Land Act being defeated by these means?
§ THE SOLICITOR GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. WALKER)I have observed with regret the embarrassments created in the fixing of fair rents by the conflicts between landlord and tenant about the rights to different kinds of profits and prendre. It appears to be the fact that cases have occurred in which landlords, after fair rents had been fixed, 1565 have made charges for turbary, and seaweed, and the like, which had not been made before. I have not had the opportunity of ascertaining the views of the Land Commissioners; but I shall take all the means in my power to make myself fully acquainted with the important subject referred to in the Question.