WORKING OF THE IRISH LAND ACT.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1946, 25 December 1884, Page 4

WORKING OF THE IRISH LAND ACT.

Some interesting papers respecting the working of the Irish Lund Act have just hocn issued. The Monthly Return of Judicial Rent* fixed shows, that during iho month of,. May last . the fub-'Jom-misaioncis adjudicated on 2712 uppliualions, effecting an aggregate reduction of £7300, on an area of 69,448 ftcies, and reducing the average rent from nearly IK to something over 9s an ucre. The cinfcie of judicial activity was the province of Ulster, where nearly 1200 "fair rents'" were fixed, against JHO in Oonn.iught, which is second Oi the list. A return furnished on the motion of Lord Caslletown thiows eon-t-idera'jle light on the methods by which the land tribunals arrive at their decisions It consists of copies of evidence and documents connected %\ith two cases, of no great importance as regaids the sivps at stake, but bearing directly on the piinciplo of fixing a fair rental. The rents were alleged to have been unaltered for a century, and were proved to have remained at the same figure for forty years. The landloid had everToffered to buy the farms at the highest valuation. The tenants refused, and when the caßes came before the court the Sub-Commissioners reduced the rents considerably. An appeal to Mr Justice O'Hagan was unsuccessful, and the learned Judge, in giving his decision, took into account a statement made by a gentleman unconnected with the case, that " flax had ceased to lie a profitable crop in the province of Ulster." The landlord's counsel very naturally protested against the importation of art unsupported assertion into cases iv which flax was nerer mentioned, and applied for a case for the Court of Appeal, which was refused. The correspondence now published closes with a letter to the Secretary of the Lind Commission, in which the landlord's repiesentative supplied authoritative statements " emphatically contradicting " the opiniou Judge O'Hagan lelied on, and taking a favourable view of the prospects of flax culture. With such an example of Land Cou>-t proceduie it is not to be expected that a letnrn meved for by the Duke of Argyll, of the number of cases in which an application to fix.af.nr lent had resulted in raising the lental, should be a voluminous document. These cases, in fact, amount to no le.-3 than fi\e hundred, but they supply some \ery remarkable figures.