§ MR. P. J. O'BRIEN (Tipperary, N.)asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether the moneys earned by the road contractors in the North Riding of the County of Tipperary for a period of eight months came due at the recent Assizes at Nenagh on the 5th and 6th instants, when, as usual, cheques for payment should be issued; whether these contractors, numbering over 500, mostly poor men, are yet unpaid; whether many of them reside at a distance of 20 miles from Nenagh, where they have had to come applying for their money; and, whether complaints have reached him that this is owing to the neglect of "the Clerk of the Crown and Peace" in not signing the cheques duly certified for; and, if so, whether he will have instructions issued to that official to have the payments made without further delay?
§ THE PARLIAMENTARY UNDER SECRETARY (Colonel KING-HARMAN) (Kent, Isle of Thanet)(who replied) said: The Clerk of the Crown and Peace reports that a few days must necessarily elapse after the Assizes are over before payments can be made to contractors. When the presentments are fiated by the Judge of Assize, the Secretary to the Grand Jury has to prepare a draft in favour of each contractor, which is then submitted to the Clerk of the Crown and Peace, who has to examine it carefully with the original presentment before he countersigns it. The presentments are very numerous, and necessarily require some days for examination. He does not believe there is a single contractor still unpaid. In the case of those who came to him, even before the Assizes had closed, and represented that they lived at a distance, he at once, at great personal inconvenience, examined and countersigned the drafts; and the next day, before leaving to attend the Clonmel Assizes, he signed as many drafts as were then ready. He, however, cannot undertake in future to have all the drafts ready until about one week after the Assizes are over, which appears to be also the practice in other counties; and of this the contractors have been already fully informed.
§ MR. P. J. O'BRIENasked the right hon. and gallant Gentleman, is it not the invariable practice that payment should be made before the expiration of Assizes; and, also, whether, under any circumstances, compensation will be made to those poor men for their loss of time and the expense that they have incurred in journeying several times to and from the Assize Court, sometimes a distance of more than 20 miles?
§ COLONEL KING-HARMANSo far as I can understand, an irregular and objectionable practice has prevailed in the North Riding of Tipperary—that of contractors coming and asking for payment even before the presentments have been fiated. That appears to be a very irregular proceeding, and the present Clerk of the Crown has very properly laid down another rule.
§ MR. P. J. O'BRIENThe right hon. and gallant Gentleman has not answered the Question. I asked him, does he say that it was not the invariable practice to have the payments made beforehand?
§ COLONEL KING-HARMANI should say it was not. I do not think it possible it could have been. What I am informed is that that practice had prevailed. I suppose it began by obliging one or two contractors, and then came to be an abuse and could not be continued.
§ MR. MAURICE HEALY (Cork)I would ask the right hon. and gallant Gentleman, whether it is not a fact that the fiating of these presentments is not the first duty that a Judge performs at the Assize?
§ COLONEL KING-HARMANYes, Sir. These presentments are passed by the Grand Jury and then fiated by the learned Judge. But they have then to go through the hands of the Secretary to the Grand Jury, who has other multifarious duties to attend to, and they are then carefully revised and gone through by the Clerk of the Crown. As I have already explained, it is manifestly impossible to have all these duties performed in a short time.