THE EARL OF LIMERICKasked, Whether the attention of the Irish Go- 1008 vernment has been directed to an application for a magazine licence for the storage of gunpowder and safety blasting powder at Conigar in the parish of Mungret and county of Limerick; how far the proposed magazine will be from a constabulary barracks; and what steps will be taken, if it is sanctioned, to protect it and prevent its being broken into? He said that a powder magazine had already been broken into in Ireland, and a considerable quantity of dynamite stolon therefrom, which had not yet been recovered, but was concealed somewhere in the country. Under those circumstances, he trusted that every precaution would be taken by the Government to prevent a repetition of such an occurrence.
THE EARL OF ROSEBERY,in reply, said, he could assure the noble Earl that the attention of the Irish Government had not been called to the fact; but he would remind him that the administration of the Explosive Act was under the control of the Home Secretary, and he had the granting of provisional licences for the erection of magazines of this kind. Before the magazine could be erected, moreover, a licence had to be obtained from the local authority, and, under the Peace Preservation Act, from the magistrates also. In the future, however, before any provisional licences wore granted, the opinion of the Irish Government would be taken as to the desirability of granting them. The present magazine was a little more than a mile from two constabulary barracks. He would remind the noble Earl that the 23rd section of the Explosives Act threw the onus upon the occupier of preventing the unlawful entrance of any unauthorized person into the magazine; and a Circular had recently been issued by the Home Secretary directing the special attention of the owners of magazines to that provision, and giving stringent instructions to the Inspectors with regard to it.