§ Mr. PATRICK MEEHANasked the Chief Secretary whether he was aware that a notice had been issued by the Irish Land Commission to tenants in Queen's County who had applied to have fair rents fixed on their holdings, stating that cases had been adjourned for two years to enable the tenants to put their holdings into a proper state; whether this notice had been served on reinstated evicted tenants whose farms were conacred by the landlord and thus deteriorated; whether the reinstated tenants must continue to pay a rack rent and improve their holdings in such a manner for two years or such further periods as the inspector of the Land Commission might direct; whether he was aware that it had been decided in the case of Bell v. Robinson that bad farming did not in itself form a ground for depriving the tenant of the right to have a judicial rent fixed, and the deterioration of the land would be taken into consideration in fixing it so that the tenant might not profit by his own wrong; and whether, seeing that in the case of reinstated evicted tenants the deterioration did not take place through the fault of the tenant, he would direct the cases so adjourned to be heard and the judicial rents fixed from the date of the tenant's application?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe hon. Member presumably refers to four applications by tenants to have fair rents fixed on certain holdings in the Queen's County where the Sub-Commission Court adjourned the cases in order that the holdings might be put by the tenants into a fit state to be valued, as, in the opinion of the Court, a fair rent could not be fixed on the holdings in their present condition. The period of adjournment was one year in one case, and two years in the other cases. Deterioration in the cases referred to appears to have taken place during the tenants' occupation. If any one of the parties concerned was aggrieved with the order of adjournment he was at liberty to appeal against such order within the proper time. The cases in question are, subject to the adjournment orders, still sub judice, and will in due course be again listed for hearing.