§ CAPTAIN STACPOOLEsaid, he rose to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, If it is his intention to introduce a Bill to amend the thirty-eighth section of the Drainage Act of 1863, which limits the Power of the Board of Works in Ireland to make advances to any Drainage Board to one moiety of the amount proposed to be expended by such Board; and, if so, when he will be prepared to introduce the Bill?
MR. PEELsaid, in reply, that the Board of Works in Ireland had power to lend money to the amount of one-half of the cost of the drainage works in a drainage district, and as the Government rent-charge for the repayment of that loan took precedence of every other claim, the proprietors of the district were placed under some difficulty in raising the other half; and he proposed, therefore, to intro-duce a Bill for the purpose of giving the Commissioners of Public Works in Ireland the power to lend money to the whole amount of the cost of the drainage works.