§ MR. M'CARTAN (Down, S.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether his attention has been called to a resolution unanimously adoped at the last meeting of the Ballymena Board of Guardians, whereby they called upon the Government to pass a law providing that no 808 letting of a cottier tenement or subletting prior to the Land Act of 1881 shall debar a tenant from having a fair rent fixed; whether he is aware that the Guardians, as a Sanitary Authority, protested in their resolution against the recent legal decisions on sub-letting as opposed to the policy of the Labourers Acts and welfare of the linen weavers and tenant farmers; and whether, considering that the Board consists of both landlords and tenants, he will have regard to this unanimous expression of opinion when dealing with the amendment of the Irish Land Laws?
MR. J. MORLEYMy attention has been called to the resolution in question. As my hon. Friend is aware, the Select Committee inquiring into the working of the Land Acts is at present considering the whole question of sub-letting, and, pending the Report of the Committee, it would be premature for me to express an opinion in the matter referred to.