§ MR. M'CARTANI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware of the general dissatisfaction in Ireland, particularly in Ulster, with reference to the present state of the law relating to town parks; whether his attention has been called to the decision of the Land Commission in the case of Mrs. Letitia M'Cann, tenant, and the Marquess of Downshire, landlord, wherein the village of Dundrum, County Down, Which had a population of only 372 in 1881, was decided to be a (own to which the exemption from the benefits of the Land Acts applied; is he aware that the Land Commission had previously decided that Dundrum was not such a town at the passing of the Act; whether he is aware that the Cowper Commission recommended that the exemption should not apply to any town under a population of 5,000, and that the late Government 878 accepted in the House of Commons, in the Land Act of 1887, an amendment providing that the exemption should not apply where the population was under 2,000; and whether some steps will be taken to preserve to tenants in towns in Ireland their property in such lands held outside the towns? At the same time, I may ask the right hon. Gentleman whether he is aware of the large number of tenants in Ireland whose holdings have been exempted from the benefits of the Land Acts; whether his attention has been called to the ease of Mr. John Robb, of Belfast, tenant, and the Marquess of Downshire, landlord, where the Land Commission decided to fix an extra rent on the improvements made by the tenant, without any contribution from the landlord, on the ground that such improvements were too good for the holding: and whether the terms of Reference to the proposed Committee will be so extended as to include inquiry into the cases now excluded by the defects of the Land Acts, but which are equally entitled to the benefits which these Acts were intended to confer on all the farmers of Ireland?
MR. J. MORLEYI am informed that the Judicial Commissioner is at present absent from Dublin hearing fair rent appeals. There has not been sufficient time to communicate with him in the country since the questions were put on the Paper, and. therefore, I hope the hon. Gentleman will postpone them.
§ MR. SEXTONI should wish to ask the right hon. Gentleman whether cases of the class referred to in these questions would not come within the scope of the proposed Committee to inquire into the working of the Land Acts?