Lords Sitting of 8 April 1897

EARL OF KINGSTON (CLAIM TO VOTE FOR REPRESENTATIVE PEERS FOR IRELAND).
Ordered and directed, that a Certificate be sent by the Clerk of the Parliaments to the Clerk of the Crown in Ireland, stating that the Lord Chancellor of the United Kingdom has reported to the House of Lords that the right of the Earl of Kingston to vote at the elections of Representative Peers for Ireland has been established to the satisfaction of him, the said Lord Chancellor; and that the House of Lords has ordered such report to be sent to the said Clerk of the Crown in Ireland; and it is hereby also Ordered, that the said Report of the said Lord Chancellor be sent to the Clerk of the Crown in Ireland.

COMMISSION.
The following Bills received the Royal Assent: —

Crays Gas.

Dunbarton County Buildings.

Edinburgh American Land Mortgage Company, Limited.

Local Government Board's Provisional Orders Confirmation (No. 1).

Military Lands Act.

Military Works.

South Metropolitan Gas.

South Yorkshire Junction Railway.

Thompson's Divorce.

Voluntary Schools.

The Lords' Commissioners were the LORD CHANCELLOR (Lord HALSBURY), the LORD PRIVY SEAL (Viscount CROSS), and the Earl of HOPETOUN (Paymaster General).

NEW PEER.
Charles George Viscount Cobham and Baron Cobham, having succeeded to those titles on the death of Richard Plantagenet Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, Viscount Cobham, Baron Cobham, &c, by virtue of a special remainder contained in a patent bearing date the 23rd May in the fourth year of the reign of His Majesty King George the First—Was (in the usual manner) introduced.
Lord Hay (E. Kinnoul), sat first in Parliament after the death of his father.
PRIVATE AND PROVISIONAL ORDER CONFIRMATION BILLS.
Ordered, that Standing Orders Nos. 92 and 93 be suspended; and that the time for depositing petitions praying to be heard against Private and Provisional Order Confirmation Bills, which would otherwise expire during the adjournment of the House at Easter, be extended to the first day on which the House shall sit after the Recess.
PREFERENTIAL PAYMENTS IN BANK RUPTCY ACT (1888) AMENDMENT BILL.
Considered in Committee (according to Order); reported without amendment; and re-committed to the Standing Committee.

BELMULLET AND ACHILL (STEAM COMMUNICATION).
THE EARL OF ARRANasked Her Majesty's Government whether there would be any objection to lay on the Table of the House copies of the Reports in consequence of which it has been decided to establish a line of steamers between Belmullet and the Island of Achill? His Lordship said that in rising to ask the question he would like to say a few words in explanation of his reason for doing so. It was proposed by the Government, according to what fell from the Chief Secretary for Ireland in another

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place last Friday, to establish a line of steamers between Belmullet and the Island of Achill on the west coast of Ireland. For those of their Lordships who might not have studied the geography of this part of Her Majesty's dominions lately, he should like to say that Belmullet was the chief town of perhaps the wildest and most backward part of the County of Mayo. It had 600 inhabitants, and was distant 35 miles from Ballina, and 20 from Achill Sound, at both of which places there were stations on the Midland Great Western system. In another place Mr. T. M. Healy compared the establishment of this line of steamers to laying down a telephone between purgatory and another and warmer place. He himself had not had the advantage of a sojourn in cither place; but if purgatory was anything like Achill, he wished he were a Roman Catholic, because if so, he should have a stay there for some time, for he never saw a more beautiful place, or one more worthy of a visit from any of their Lordships who might be disposed to go there during their autumn tours. There had been considerable agitation in that part of the world for the establishment of a railway to connect Belmullet and the surrounding district of Erris with the Midland Great Western system, and to develop the cattle trade, which was considerable, if not the only trade of the district. Various schemes had been propounded, and he had hoped that some of the money voted by Parliament for the development of the backward parts of Ireland would have been spent in this part of the world. In that hope he had been much disappointed. Various schemes had been supported and various opinions held as to the best route that the railway could take from the peculiar conformation of the ground. There were three lines which could serve Belmullet. Any one of them, while also serving one part of the surrounding district, would leave the greater portion out in the cold. He had had interviews with persons holding each of the opinions, but he had never heard an alternative route advocated in the establishment of steamers. Being an old public servant himself, he had great belief in the intelligence and sagacity of those employed in the public service, and he felt it was likely that those who had reported
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in favour of the steamers might have discovered some industry which would warrant public money being spent on this line of steamers. They were all much surprised at it, and they could not conceive what particular industry that existed could be benefited. The only trade was the cattle trade, and it was not likely that men wishing to sell their cattle and send them to the other coast parts of Ireland would ship them by one of the roughest passages in the United Kingdom, which was for the most part exposed to the full blast of the Atlantic gales, which, in winter, were excessively tempestuous, and there could be, therefore, no benefit derived by shortening the route. For that reason he begged to ask whether the report upon which this line of steamers was to be established could be produced, in order that they might see what reason —as no one could discover any—existed to warrant it?
THE LORD PRIVY SEAL (VISCOUNT CROSS): I canot enter into the merits of the question, but in the absence of Lord Ranfurly, I have been requested to give the following answer on behalf of the Irish Government—That the establishment of a line of steamers between Belmullet and Achill was not based on reports, but was decided upon after full inquiry had been made on the spot into all the circumstances. There are, therefore, no payers which could be laid on the Table.
THE EARL OF ARRANsaid he was afraid this was not a satisfactory answer, and would hardly exonerate the Government from spending money in a way that could do no possible good of any kind in the district.

LAND COMMISSION.
LORD CASTLETOWNasked Her Majesty's Government (1) whether, having regard to the decision by the Court of Appeal in Ireland in the case of "Cope v. Cunningham," the Land Commissioners were entitled to continue to treat re-hearings as if they were merely appeals; (2) whether Assistant Commissioners appointed by the Lord Lieutenant under Section 43 of the Land Act, 1881, were and could be considered as "independent valuers" within the meaning of Section 48, Sub-section 4, of the said Act; and whether, when a land case was

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coming up for rehearing, the Land Commission had power to refer the order and report of the Sub-Commissioners who adjudicated on the said case to two Assistant Commissioners to report to them, as if they were a Court of Appeal from their own colleagues, as to what order the Land Commission should make on the re-hearing.
THE LORD CHANCELLOR: The first paragraph of the question appears to have been put under some misapprehension. The Court of Appeal, in the case of "Cunningham v. Cope" referred to, decided that the provisions of Sub-section (1) of Section 1 of the Laud Law (Ireland) Act 1896, are mandatory upon the Land Commission when re-hearing fair-rent applications upon the appeal of the person aggrieved, and that the schedule must be filled up in all cases. Since that decision was communicated to them, the Land Commission have complied with the law as staled by the Court of Appeal in every case. The power given by Section 48 (4) of the Act of 1881 to appoint an independent valuer is a general power conferred upon the Land Commission, and one which they may exercise or not as they see fit in relation to any question as to any holding arising under the Act. The section referred to in the question is a transcript of a similar provision in Section 37 (b) of the same Act. The Land Commission consider that without question they have power to obtain reports from Assistant Commissioners, others than those whose decisions have been appealed from, for their assistance and consideration in any case where the person aggrieved by the Order of the Sub-Commission requires such case to be re-heard by the Land Commission. The final passage of this paragraph is also based upon a misapprehension. The Land Commission— and not the Assistant Commissioners, who report —fix the rents. The Land Commission consider it necessary to refer the schedule recorded by the Sub-Commission to the Court valuers, in order that they may know what improvements have been proved before and allowed for by the Sub-Commission, and in order that they may report upon what modifications (if any) ought to be made in the particulars recorded in the schedule.
LORD CASTLETOWNsaid that, if he might respectfully any so, the answer was
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not so clear or satisfactory as he could wish. He proposed to put a further question, and hoped to obtain an answer either from the noble and learned Lord on the Woolsack or from the Lord Chancellor of Ireland.
House Adjourned at Twenty Minutes before Five o'Clock, to Monday, the 3rd of May next, a Quarter past Four o'Clock.