§ MR. PATRICK O'BRIEN (Monaghan, N.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether it is true that the Land Sub-Commission, which sat in Carrickmacross, county Monaghan, on 9th January last, have not yet given their decision in 95 cases on the Shirley estate which were then heard, although they have since heard and inspected 40 other cases on the same estate; whether he is aware that the previous decisions of this Sub-Commission have caused general dissatisfaction, and that in consequence of this feeling the tenants are threatening to withdraw from the Court over 200 cases at present listed for hearing during the present Sitting: and whether, under these circumstances, he will represent to the Commissioners the desirability of at once announcing their decision in the oases previously heard, and so enable the tenants to decide what course they will adopt with regard to the cases pending.
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURThe Land Commissioners inform me that judgment 842 was given on February 28 in the 95 cases referred to, and also in the cases subsequently heard in Carrickmacross at the end of January and beginning of February. The decisions could not have been given earlier, as the inspection of the holdings and the reports on the cases were not completed until that week. A number of cases on the new list of fair-rent applications from tenants on the Shirley estate were heard during the past week, and the remaining cases are being disposed of as rapidly as possible by the Sub-Commission sitting at Carrickmacross.