§ MR. W. A. MACDONALD (Queen's County, Ossory)I beg to ask the Attorney General for Ireland whether it is true that Mr. Robert Frazer has recently been appointed a Sub-Commissioner to fix fair rents; whether this is 1314 the same Mr. Frazer who formerly applied to have a fair rent fixed on a farm near Donaghmore which he held from the Dowager Lady Castletown, with regard to whom the Chairman of the Sub-Commission said—
We have had frequently Mr. Frazer, the tenant of this farm, before us as a valuer, generally for landlords, and certainly if we took his valuations as a standard to base the value of this land on, we should be obliged to increase instead of decrease the rent. However, we give him the benefit of our own estimation of its value and reduce the rent. We must Bay we consider this the worst managed farm we have come across for a long time;and whether he can state what Mr. Frazer's qualifications are for the office to which he has been appointed?
§ *MR. MADDENIn May last, Mr. Frazer was merely appointed temporarily to perform the duties of an Assistant Commissioner, who was absent on sick leave. When this gentleman returned to work, Mr. Frazer ceased to be employed, and has no claim for further employment. Mr. Frazer is the same person who applied to have a fair rent fixed in the Queen's County, to which reference is made in the second paragraph. That farm, however, appears to have been merely a small outlying grass holding, containing some 40 acres, and on which Mr. Frazer did not reside. As regards his qualifications, I am informed that he is a practical farmer, holding altogether nearly 500 acres.