MR. LANE, for Mr. M. HEALYI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland how many fair rent applications lodged with the Land Commission from the county Cork are still unheard, including applications by leaseholders; whether it is the case that, since the passing of the Land Act of 1887, the county Cork has had a Sub-Commission to itself, but that within the past two months the county Waterford was added to the district of this Sub-Commission; why this was done, having regard to the enormous arrears of land cases in county Cork; whether it is the case that the county Cork is now worse than before the recent appointment of additional Sub-Commissioners; what is the average number of Poor Law Unions at present included in the circuit of a Sub-Commission, and what number of Unions are now included in the circuit of the Cork Sub Commission; and, whether he is aware that the effect of including so large an area in the circuit of this Commission has been to greatly hamper its capacity for disposing of business, in consequence of the long distances between the different sittings?
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURThe Land Commissioners inform me that the number of fair-rent applications from county Cork undisposed of by the Land Commission on the 1st inst. was 5,041. A Sub-Commission has sat more continuously in the county Cork since the 1st of November, 1887, than in any other county. The Sub-Commission at first consisted of four laymen. This number was increased to six in September, 1888. In February last two of the Assistant-Commissioners were transferred to the county Waterford, partly in respect of cases in unions which lie in both counties, and partly on the ground that there had been no sitting in part of Waterford for a considerable period—since November, 1887. The pair now in Waterford will soon return to Cork. The circuits of the Sub-Commissions 1510 are not fixed with regard to the average number of Poor Law Unions to be included in each, as the number of rent cases to be disposed of in each union always largely differs. At present there are as many Assistant Commissioners working in the county Cork as there were during the period from the 1st of November, 1887, to end of July, 1888.