§ MR. GINNELLI beg to ask Mr. Attorney-General for Ireland, in case of appeal against a judicial rent, is it still the practice, as stated by Mr. Fitzgerald in his evidence before a Select Committee in 1894, for the court valuer to adopt the estimated value of improvements made by the Sub-Commission, instead of making an independent examination and estimate; and, if not, can he refer to any rule forbidding the continuance of that practice, or say when it was discontinued.
§ MR. CHERRYThe Answer to the first part of the Question is in the negative. I am informed by the Land Commissioners that the effect of Mr. Justice Fitzgerald's evidence in 1894 is not quite correctly set out in the Question, but that the practice then existing has been changed by the passing of the Land Act, 1903. Since the passing of that Act, in fair rent appeals the holdings are inspected and reported upon by an assessor who has heard the evidence, having been present in court during the hearing of the case, and he has to report (1) the improvements on the holding made wholly or partly by the landlord, or at his cost; (2) the improvements on the holding made wholly or partly by the tenant, or at his cost. It is his duty to make an 880 independent examination and estimate of the value of the improvements in every case, and not to adopt the views of the Assistant Commissioners upon these matters.