§ MR. DALYI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, with reference to the sitting of the Chief Land Commission at Belfast last week, whether he will state how many 288 fair rent appeals were disposed of then; in how many cases were the rents fixed by the Sub-Commission reduced, and in how many cases were they increased; in how many cases the judicial rents fixed by the Sub-Commission were increased and reduced respectively by the reports of the Court Valuers; in how many cases were the Court Valuers' estimated fair rents reduced and increased respectively by the Chief Commission; and whether in the Reports of the work of the Land Commission supplied to the House the amounts fixed by the Court Valuers will be also given?
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURThere were in all 65 cases disposed of at the recent sittings of the Chief Commission at Belfast to hear fair rent appeals. In four of these cases the rents as fixed by the Court below were reduced, in 25 cases they were increased, and in 12 cases they were affirmed. In 14 cases the appeals were either settled or withdrawn, in eight cases judgment was reserved, in one case an order dismissing the proceedings of the Court below was affirmed, and the remaining case was adjourned. Of the 41 cases referred to, in which rents were fixed by the Chief Commission after hearing, 30 were fixed at a rent lower than that estimated by the Court Valuers, nine at a rent higher than that estimated by the Court Valuers, and in the remaining two cases the rents were fixed at the same sum as that estimated by the Court Valuers. It is pointed out that the Land Commissioners, with the reports of the Court Valuers before them and after hearing the evidence and considering ail the circumstances of the case, holding, and district, determine the fair rent. The Commissioners do not propose to insert in the Return referred to the Valuers' estimates of the amount of the fair rent in each case.