CLASS III. (Hansard, 14 June 1892)

§ (9.53.) MR. MAURICE HEALY

I should like to obtain from the right hon. Gentleman some information as to what the Land Commission has been doing during the last twelve months. A year ago the Commission found it necessary to largely reduce the staff of Sub-Commissioners, because the pressure of work had subsided; but there are still a large number of Sub-Commissioners on the active staff. But in the County of Cork there has not been a single Sub-Commission held during the last twelve months. I have asked several questions on the subject, and have been told that other counties were included in the Circuit in which Cork is included, and that, as the Commissioners had worked admirably for four years, that was considered a sufficient justification for entirely ceasing the work of fixing fair rents in the whole of the County of Cork. I may point out that now no Commission can sit till October, so that fourteen months will have elapsed since the last Commission sat in the county, and since any attempt was made to fix fair rents over that enormous area. But there were tremendous arrears of work in Cork, some thousands of applications being still unheard. I have myself been professionally engaged in cases the applications for which were made in 1887, and they have not yet come to a hearing. Then the right hon. Gentleman knows that last year his Predecessor in the Office (Mr. A. J. Balfour) passed the Redemption of Land Act, and under that Act a number of fresh applications have been served. It is true there is an alternative; but if the landlords are not willing to sell, 1122 the cases have to be tried in the same way as the other cases before the Commission. A number of these cases have been raised—not perhaps so many as we anticipated—but a large number; but, so far as we know, those unfortunate tenants may have to wait five years before their cases are heard. But the curious thing is that while the Sub-Commissioners have ceased their work the head Commission is as active as ever. It consists only of three members, and has to deal with the whole of Ireland, but they have held three sittings in Cork during the last twelve months. In that time, although there are forty Sub-Commissioners, not a single Sub-Commission has been held in Cork. We know that the head Commission has an inducement to get on with the work of hearing these appeals, and we do not com plain that the applications should be disposed of as quickly as possible, but I want to know why the work of the Sub-Commissioners should have ceased. The failure of the Sub-Commissions in Cork is very unsatisfactory to the tenants, especially as they cannot take their cases into the County Courts. The landlords of Cork have swept the whole of the cases out of the County Courts and have taken them to the Land Commission, and I trust the right hon. Gentleman will be able to give us some explanation of the total failure of the Sub-Commissions in the County of Cork during the last twelve months.

§ (10.0.) MR. JACKSON

I quite sympathise with the desire which the hon. Gentleman has expressed that the utmost speed that can be made in fixing fair rents should be made, and that the visits of the Commissioners should be as frequent as possible, so as to provide, as far as possible, for dealing with the cases in the district. I have been watching the proceedings of the Commission, and there has been a considerable reduction in the amount of arrears. At the end of January, 1891, there were 20,781 cases. That number has been reduced gradually and continuously, I am glad to say, until at the end of April this year there were only 9,000 cases, so that it will be seen there has been great progress made. It must be remembered that during that time the 1123 Commissioners have had current cases to deal with, and yet they have made this reduction of more than one-half of the cases. The number of Assistant Commissioners was reduced in August last year, but the Court may appoint a Sub-Commissioner temporarily if found necessary. The hon. Member may take it from me that I have called the attention of the Commissioners to the desirability of making such progress as they can consistently with doing the work well and properly, and I will do what I can to push on the work and get rid of the arrears.