§ MR. McCARTAN (Down, S.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, with reference to the refusal to state to this House the number of fair rent appeals in which the reports, of the court valuers are respectively above and below the judicial rents fixed by the Sub-Commissioners, whether he will state the reason for such refusal, considering that it is now open to the parties to procure copies of these reports?
§ THE CHIEF SECRETARY TO THE LORD LIEUTENANT OF IRELAND (Mr. GERALD W. BALFOUR,) Leeds, CentralIt is presumed the honourable Member refers to the Questions recently addressed to me by the honourable Members for South Monaghan and North Galway relative to the decisions of the Land Commissioners in certain cases heard before them on appeal at Belfast and Dundalk. As already pointed out by me, the court valuers, in the cases referred to, did not report upon the fair rent of the holdings, and consequently the Commissioners were unable to give the information in question. Under the system recently established, however, the reports of the court valuers do contain an estimate of the fair rent of each holding, and the parties are enabled, moreover, to obtain, as a matter of course, copies of the reports of these officers prior to the hearing of the appeal.