§ MR. SAMUEL YOUNG (Cavan, E.)To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that under the Belfast Water Act of 1899 the Belfast City and District Water Commissioners in the process of acquiring many thousand acres of land in the Woodburn district, near Carrickfergus, appointed an arbitrator in March, 1902, to hear the claims of landlords and tenants'; that till the present no draft award has been published although the arbitrator has been frequently appealed to on the subject; and whether, seeing that a number of tenants on these lands are living in a state of uncertainty, he can take any steps to compel the arbitrator to submit his draft award at once.
(Answered by Mr. Wyndham) The arbitrator has divided his draft award into sections. The first section was lodged in the Office of the Commissioner of Public Works on the 18th January last, and the third section on the 11th instant. The second section is in the hands of the printers, and it is anticipated that it will be lodged in the course of a few days. The claims dealt with have been vary numerous, and the arbitrator states that it was not possible to complete the award earlier. A considerable number of objections have been received and the arbitrator reports that, by arrangement between the solicitors and counsel for the various claimants and the legal advisers of the Belfast Water Commissioners, the hearing of these claims 271 will not be commenced until after the long vacation has begun.