§ MR. DAVITTI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, with reference to the true value fixed upon the farm of James Chisholm, near Whitehouse, Belfast, on the application of the landlord, at £480, by the County Court Judge of County Antrim, whether he is aware that the farm was sold by public auction for £900, and on appeal to the Land Commission the highest bidder at the public sale swore he was still prepared to give for the lands upwards of £900, and a gentleman named Mr. Rice swore then he (Mr. Rice) was willing to give £1,000 for same; whether notwithstanding this evidence, and the fact that a judicial rent had been fixed thereon, the Chief Commission decided that £675 was the true value of this farm for which £1,000 had been offered in open court; and if the law will be amended so as to enable the farmers of Ulster and Ireland to secure for their farms offered for sale the full price instead of only a portion of it.
§ MR. G. W. BALFOURThe facts are as stated in the first and second paragraphs. The Land Commission Court judically decreed that the true value of the tenancy was £675. The rent of the holding was £40. In reply to the last paragraph, it is not my intention to make a proposal for altering the law with respect to the true value of a holding as between landlord and tenant.