§ MR. BLANE (Armagh, S.)asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, If the Irish Land Commission stated that the percentage of reduction granted by them to judicial tenants under "The Land Law (Ireland) Amendment Act, 1887," would only apply to the half-year ending the 1st of November, 1887; whether this opinion was also expressed by Mr. Kisbey, in giving judgment in "Lord Lurgan v. Heaney and others," at Lurgan Quarter Sessions in January last; and, whether Baron Dowse, on appeal from Mr. Kisbey's decision, reversed the judgment against Heaney, and gave the percentage of Land Commission reduction for the whole year ending November, 1887; and, if so, would the Government give proper publicity to the interpretation given by Baron Dowse to the Act of 1887, and have balances refunded to tenants who have only got a half-year's reduction?
§ THE PARLIAMENTARY UNDER SECRETARY (Colonel KING-HARMAN) (Kent, Isle of Thanet)(who replied) said: The Land Commissioners, in a Minute which they prepared and circulated in connection with the alteration of rents prescribed by their Order of the 23rd of December, 1887, explained that the revision of rent provided for by the 29th section of the Land Law (Ireland) Act, 1887, and by the Order of the 23rd of December, 1887, refers only to the rent payable in respect of the year commencing from the gale day next before the 23rd of August, 1887, and does not 863 effect prior arrears of rent. Neither the Government nor the Land Commissioners are aware of the case referred to; and the Commissioners have not heard that a view contrary to what they have indicated was ever expressed by a judicial person. The hon. Member will probably find, upon inquiry, that the case he alludes to was one which can in no way affect the general principle laid down by the Commissioners, which is in accordance with the explicit terms of the statute.