§ MR. DILLON(for Mr. M'CARTAN) (Down, S.)asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether he is aware that the Special Report of the Irish Land Commission, dated 3rd January, 1888, and presented to the House on Wednesday last, does not contain copies of the Schedule and Supplemental Schedule referred to therein; whether, considering the numerous complaints that the reductions made by the Land Commission were by no means commensurate with the fall in the prices of produce, and that the same machinery has to be resorted to for 1888 and 1889, he will give a Return of Copies of these Schedules, with the answers given thereon by the scrutineers; whether the suggestion, No. 1, made in the Letter of the Land Commission of the 25th of August, and copy of which is appended to the Special Report, has been in any instance carried out by the scrutineers; and, if so, in what Unions differences have been made in the revision of judicial rents by reason of "one portion being a mountain and the other portion a lowland district;" whether he can state the names of the persons in the County of Down with whom "the Supplemental Schedules on thin paper," referred 1494 to in Suggestion No. 2, were left to be filled, as directed, "at the request" of the scrutineers; and, whether he can mention at what dates respectively the scrutineers for the County of Down were instructed to have their Schedules and Supplemental Schedules filled up and returned?
§ THE PARLIAMENTARY UNDER SECRETARY (Colonel KING-HARMAN) (Kent, Isle of Thanet)(who replied) said: I am aware of the circumstances mentioned in the first paragraph. The Land Commissioners inform me that they have no objection to furnish copies of the Schedules referred to, and which they state were at the time communicated to the public Press. They cannot, however, undertake to give the answers furnished by their scrutineers, nor the names of the persons in the County Down with whom the Supplemental Schedules were left. The Returns of the scrutineers did indicate, in most instances, the characteristics of the Union dealt with, as regarded its mountain and lowland districts. The scrutineers were directed to return their Schedules and Supplemental Schedules as soon as they should have obtained the information called for.