§ MR. HARRIS (Galway, E.)asked Mr. Solicitor General for Ireland, Whether he is aware that Mr. Junius Horan, the occupying tenant of the Agricultural Hall, Ballinasloe, has expressed his willingness to give up that building with a view to its being converted into a Town Hall; and, if so, may the Commissioners "appropriate" the Agricultural Hall at a fair rent, or at the rent now paid by Mr. Horan, as by doing so they would save the greater part of the money it would take to build a new Town Hall; and, whether seeing that the money which it would take to rent or to erect a Town Hall has to come out of the receipts from tolls and customs, the Royal Commission on Market Rights and Tolls have power to deal with this question of a Town Hall for Ballinasloe?
§ THE SOLICITOR GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. MADDEN) (Dublin University), in reply, said, that the Statute to which the Question referred—namely, the Municipal Corporations Act 1084 of 1840, did not apply to the case which he contemplated, as pointed out in an answer to a former Question. The Agricultural Hall, Ballinasloe, was private property; and the power given to the Commissioners by 10 & 11 Vict. c. 16, to purchase on hire, lands or buildings from any person willing to sell or let the same, did not authorize them to effect a compulsory purchase. As regarded the last paragraph, he ought not to give an opinion on the point. If the matter was brought before the Royal Commission referred to it would be for the Commission to decide whether or not it was within the scope of their inquiry.