§ MR. T. M. HEALY (Louth, N.)To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland if he has received the protest of the Dundalk District Council of 15th June against the action of the arbitrator under the Labourers Acts in awarding an average of £32 an acre to owners as compared with £18 to occupiers for land compulsorily acquired, which the Council offered £25 an acre for all round; can he say by whom the arbitrator was appointed; is he a land agent; and will care be taken that no person directly connected with a particular interest in Irish land shall in future act as arbitrator under the Labourers Acts.
(Answered by Mr. Wyndham.) Representations to the effect stated were received. The arbitrator was appointed by the Local Government Board; the gentleman appointed is a land agent and surveyor. It would not, I am afraid, be practicable to act on the suggestion with which the Question concludes. 1179 The persons selected for employment as arbitrators in such matters are persons with an extensive experience of the value of land, and who, it is considered, will discharge their duties in a conscientious and impartial manner.