§ MR. CONDON (Tipperary, E.)To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that the Land Sub-Commission, consisting of Mr. Edge, B.L., and Mr. Hunter Pringle, which recently heard cases in the Cashel rural district, county
† See (4) Debates, clii, 1296.618 Tipperary, have given decisions fixing second-term rents which have caused dissatisfaction among the tenants generally; whether he is aware that in the case of Mrs. Anne Lalor, tenant, Commander Kellett, landlord, in reference to two holdings, this Sub-Commission confirmed the first-term rent in one case, and slightly raised it in the other on an alleged increased area, poor law valuation made when prices were far higher being substantially lower than the new rents; whether he is aware that the pink schedule reports in both cases state that the tenant has insufficient working capital, and make that a reason for not reducing the rents; and that the Land Commission schedule of agricultural prices during the past fifteen years shows an all-round reduction in values; whether, with a view to providing a remedy for such fixing of rents by the Irish Land Commission, he will introduce a provision into the next Land Bill that rents shall be varied at least according to the variations of agricultural prices, having regard to the nature of the produce of each holding; and whether in these two cases of Mrs. Lalor the landlord's valuer estimated the fair rents at 13 per cent. under the rents fixed by the Sub-Commission.(Answered by Mr. Bryce.) The decisions of Sub-Commission Courts are judicial decisions, and if either party to any case is dissatisfied with the decision of the Sub-Commission he possesses a remedy in the right of appeal which is provided by law. I am afraid that I cannot, in reply to a Question, enter into a consideration of the various controverted points which the hon. Member raises.