§ MR. D. MACALEESE (Monaghan, N.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland is he aware that great dissatisfaction prevails among certain tenants on the Coote estate, County Monaghan, with the rent reductions given by Sub-Commissioners Crean, Boyd, and Creery, in cases tried at Cootehill on the 25th November last, owing to the fact that the reductions in these cases amounted to but 24 per cent., while tenants on adjoining estates have been granted 33 per cent. under equal conditions of tenure, soil, climate, and market contiguity; and can he explain upon what principle the decisions in these respective cases were based?
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURI am not aware whether the facts are as stated in the first paragraph. The rents fixed by Assistant Commissioners are fixed after hearing evidence offered to them by the parties and after an inspection of the holdings. Their orders are made in a judicial capacity, and if the parties are dissatisfied it is open to them to appeal.