MR. T. M. HEALYI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (1) what is the average time occupied between the hearing of a fair rent application and the fixing of a judicial rent; (2) when did the Dublin. Sub-Commission of 1897 begin their sittings, and have any fair rents since been fixed; (3) have gales of rent at the former rate since then become payable on which farmers have been sued, and has the head of Dublin Sub-Commission since sat in Munster; and (4) can any arrangement be made by which speedier decision can be given in County Dublin?
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURThe interval between the hearing and the decision of fair rent applications may be one of two or three weeks, and may be considerably longer, depending upon the number of cases heard at a sitting, the distance between the holdings, facilities of locomotion, weather, and other circumstances. The sitting of the Sub-Commission Court in Dublin took place on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th February and was continued on the 16th March. The hearing of the list, containing 74 cases, has been completed, and decisions have been announced in 59 of these cases. The Land Commission have no information as to the first part of the first paragraph. The Chairman of the Sub-Commission referred to has since sat to hear cases in Munster. I am assured that no undue delay has occurred in announcing the decisions in these cases.
§ MR. J. P. FARRELL (Cavan, W.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland can he state when the next Land Sub-Commission Court will sit in Cavan?
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURA Sub-Commission Court sat in the town of Cavan early in February last. No date has yet been fixed for the next sitting in that town.
MR. J. J.SHEE (Waterford, W.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (1) whether the Irish Land Commission, in collecting and preparing their returns of the average prices of agricultural produce in Ireland, take steps to ascertain the prices of cattle and farm produce which are realised at the fairs and markets in the chief towns of all the counties in Ireland; if not, what are the names of the towns and cities from 390 which they obtain returns; (2) who collects the information, and how often; (3) how, for instance, is the average price of yearling cattle arrived at with regard to any particular fair, if a varying number of that class of cattle are sold at various prices ranging from, say, £3 to £6; (4) is it claimed by the Irish Land Commission that their returns are approximately accurate; and (5), if the number of any class of cattle or proportion of farm produce sold at the various prices is not ascertained approximately, in what way is the approximation to accuracy, if claimed, secured?
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURThe reply to the first Question is in the affirmative, as regards the prices of cattle. Market transactions in wheat, oats, barley, eggs, butter and potatoes are reported by the Inland Revenue Officers at Limerick, Cork, Sligo, Belfast, Waterford, Dublin, Derry, and Gal way. Particulars as to flax and grass seeds are furnished by the same officers at Armagh, Cookstown, Ballymena and Clones. Information as to cattle is obtained from the Market Authorities of Dublin, Belfast and Cork, and from other persons throughout the country. As regards the third Question, the hon. Member will observe, on reference to the Land Commission Returns, that store cattle are classified according to quality, and the average prices of cattle of a specified age and class are calculated by dividing the gross value of the stock sold by the number sold. Every possible care is taken by the Commissioners to obtain accurate reports and returns, and their calculation of averages compiled from these returns is strictly accurate. The last Question requires no further answer.
§ MR. McCARTANI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether his attention has been called to the conduct of certain landlords in the county of Down, who decline to appear or to present witnesses before the Sub-Commission on the hearing of fair rent applications, and afterwards appeal from the decision of the Sub-Commission to the Chief Commission and there produce witnesses, making the Chief Commission a court of first instance for them; and whether, seeing that in the ordinary appeals from the county court to the assizes where no witnesses had been produced by the 391 appellants at the court below the Judges invariably send them back for hearing to the court of first instance, it is the intention of the Chief Commission in similar cases to remit their cases to the Sub-Commission for a full hearing?
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURThe attention of the Land Commissioners has not been called to the conduct of any landlord in the county of Down declining to appear or present witnesses before a Sub-Commission. A complaint was made of such conduct on the part of a landlord in the county of Armagh in reference to certain cases on his estate, but as these cases have not yet been decided, the Land Commissioners are unable to make any statement in reference to them.
§ MR. SHEEI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland what are the names of the Lay Assistant Commissioners included in the orders of delegation made by the Irish Land Commission at present in force for the provinces of Ulster and Minister?
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURThe number of Lay Assistant Commissioners row at work in the province of Ulster and Munster is 46; namely, 39 in Ulster, and 7 in Minister. A list of the names of these gentlemen has been forwarded to the hon. Member.
§ CAPTAIN DONELANOn behalf of the hon. Member for East Tyrone (Mr. P. C. DOOGAN), I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland if he is in a position to explain why the farm of James Doyle, of Derrychrin Drumaney Arboe, county Tyrone, has not yet been visited with a view to fixing a fair rent, although his case was heard in the Land Court, Cookstown, before Commissioners Messrs. Howlin and Edge on the 25th February last?
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURThe holding in question has not yet been visited, because Mr. Howlin has been engaged in the inspection of other cases previously heard.
§ MR. SHEEI beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether, inasmuch as all owners of land in Ireland who have purchased their holdings under the Land Purchase Acts since 1891 have been relieved of the expense of procuring legal assistance for the purpose of having their titles registered under The Local 392 Registration of Titles (Ireland) Act, 1891, and have had the registration of their titles carried out for them by the Irish Land Commission, and that the expense of legal assistance for the registration of the title to a holding however small is at least £2 2s., according to scale, whilst those owners the purchase of whose holdings was completed before 1891 have to bear the expense of procuring legal assistance to register their titles, steps will be taken to have the registration of the titles to their holdings of purchasers before 1891 completed for them without expense, as in the case of those who purchased since 1891?
§ MR. HANBURYThe hon. Member refers to a point which was settled in 1892 after very careful consideration between the Treasury and the Land Commission. Owners the purchase of whose holdings was completed before 31st December, 1891, have their titles registered without payment of any Government fee, provided that they applied for registration within the period of a year allowed by Section 22 (2) of the Act. But they differ from tenants purchasing since 1891, because the latter registered their title at the same time as the transfer of the holding took place, whereas in the case of earlier purchasers the interval between the transfer and the registration afforded occasion for legal difficulties to have arisen in connection with the title.
§ MR. SHEEIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that he has not answered the Question on the Paper at all?
§ MR. HANBURYNo, I am aware that I answered it very completely.
§ MR. HANBURYI am perfectly aware of that, and the whole of the last paragraph of my answer refers to the lawyer's fees.
§ DR. FOX (King's County, Tullamore)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that 50 tenants in the Tullamore district of King's County applied to have fair rents fixed, and that only one application was heard; and, when the next Land Commission will sit in that district?
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURThere are 34, not 50, cases pending from the 393 Tullamore Union. The actual date of hearing the cases listed has not yet been announced by the Chairman of the Sub-Commission.
§ MR. G. MURNAGHAN (Tyrone, Mid)I beg to ask tile Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that the recent decisions given by Assistant Land Commissioners of cases heard at Omagh cover 31 cases only, leaving a large number still undecided: if he will state the cause of delay in arriving at a decision in the ease of Patrick Morris, heard at Omagh in December and visited the same week; and, will be also stale when decisions will be made known of cases heard several months ago at Castlederg, Strabane, and Cookstown?
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURJudgment has been given in 36 of the cases referred to, and the Chairman of the Sub-Commission expects to announce the decisions in the majority of the remaining cases to-morrow. The case of Patrick Morns was heard on the 1st March, and not in December as stated. The Sub-Commission has not yet been able to announce its decision in his case. Decisions were delivered on Wednesday in a large number of the cases heard at Castlederg and Strabane, and the decisions will be made known to-day in the remainder of these cases. The Sub-Commission has not yet given its decisions in the Cooksiown cases, 28 of which were heard on the 25th February last.
MR. T. M. HEALYCan the right hon. Gentleman say how it is that the chief Land Commission can raise the rent, in as many cases in the course of a single day as the Sub-Commission can hear in three months. [Laughter.]
§ * MR. SPEAKEROrder, order!